The Great American Ale Trail - Christian DeBenedetti [154]
Jefferson’s teacher was Joseph Miller, a British expatriate who also trained one of Jefferson’s slaves, Peter Hemings (brother of Sally), how to malt and brew with raw materials grown on the 5,000-acre hilltop estate. Hemings was a quick study, and would eventually undertake the brewing of a hundred gallons of ale every spring and fall.
By 1814, a sturdy brew house was in place, and Hemings and Jefferson began malting estate grains to avoid having to buy them, enough to turn out 60-gallon batches of brew at a time. Jefferson preferred to bottle condition the ales, decrying local brews from the “public breweries” as “meager and vapid” and was fixated on cork quality. As he served the finished ale to friends, family, and visiting dignitaries, his fame as a brewer spread, and neighbors were soon asking him how they could get into the act, too.
To celebrate Jeffersonian Zymurgy (the art and science of brewing), nearby Starr Hill Brewery founder and brewmaster Mark Thompson and brewer Levi Hill collaborated with the Thomas Jefferson Foundation in late 2010 and early 2011 on the launch of Monticello Reserve Ale, the official beer of Monticello, inspired by what was produced and consumed by the third president and his guests. Today, Monticello Reserve Ale is sold in 750-milliliter bottles at the brewery and served on tap at local restaurants. It’s extremely light in body and bitterness by today’s standards, but offers a taste of what life as a brewer might have been like in Jefferson’s day.
BEST of the REST: VIRGINIA
THE BIRCH
1231 W. Olney Rd. • Norfolk, VA 23507 • (757) 962-5400 • thebirchbar.com
It’s fitting that the neighborhood in the Navy town of Norfolk that this new beer bar calls home is West Ghent—as in the Flemish city—Belgium looms large here. Since they opened in January of 2011, Malia Paasch and Ben Bublick have graffitied the floor-to-ceiling chalk-board with incredible selections for the twenty-one taps. There’s another 100 in the bottle, and with Belgian rarities like De Glazen Toren, St. Feuillien, Brasserie de Blaugies, and Picobrouwerij Alvinne (and American-born craft specialties from Allagash, Stillwater, and Weyerbacher), Norfolk’s first full-fledged craft beer bar has established a lofty tradition in a very short time.
RUSTICO
827 Slaters Ln. • Alexandria, VA 22314 • (703) 224-5051 • rusticorestaurant.com
A wood oven pizzeria with a mean beer selection (thanks to Greg Engbert, who worked at the famous Brickskeller Bar and went on to put Birch & Barley and Church Key on the map) Rustico is a spacious modern eatery with 30 taps and around 250 bottled selections from such esoteric producers as De Hoevebrouwers and Brouwerij Girardin (Belgium) and Birrificio Troll (Italy). One nice touch: beers are served in the proper glassware, such as snifters for stronger ales, which help aromas waft out of the glass.
CAPITAL ALEHOUSE
623 E. Main St. • Richmond, VA 23219 • (804) 780-ALES (2537) • capitalalehouse.com
The original of four locations in the area, this well-established beer bar was opened in 2002 in the heart of downtown Richmond within walking distance of Brown’s Island, the Richmond Ballet, and the Virginia State Capitol. Constructed with sweat equity by a group of beer fanatics in a 108-year-old building, the bar boasts more than fifty taps, two cask beer engines, more than two hundred bottled beers from around the world, and a varied pub grub menu. On a lower level there’s a pool table, four dart boards, and a beer garden area with communal seating and a fountain for al fresco beer drinking.
The
SOUTHEAST
S weet tea, jambalaya, barbecue . . . and Belgian ale? With Prohibitionera laws still on the books in parts of the region, keeping