Blue Mountain Brewery.

Overview

Drive up Critzer Shop Road on the Afton side of the Blue Ridge and you reach a brewery that has been making beer in the shadow of the mountains since 2007, back when a rural Virginia farm brewery was still a novel idea. Blue Mountain Brewery calls itself the state's first, and the claim carries weight: this is a farm brewery in the literal sense, growing its own hops on the property and building its flagship beer around them. The patio looks straight out at the Blue Ridge, the kitchen runs a full menu, and the beer list is long enough that first-timers tend to linger over it.

The house beer is Full Nelson, a Virginia pale ale the brewery describes as packing in as much of Nelson County as it can — a nod to the estate hops and the surrounding land. It anchors a year-round core lineup that the brewery keeps in can and keg 365 days a year.

What's on tap

The core series is where to start. Alongside Full Nelson you'll find Classic Lager, a pre-Prohibition-style lager laced with noble hops; Kolsch 151, a cold-aged German-style ale; A Hopwork Orange, an orange-infused IPA; and Phased, a hazy IPA. It's a lineup built for range rather than one-note intensity — a crisp lager and a citrusy IPA can share the same table without argument.

Seasonals rotate with the Virginia weather. Summer brings Rockfish Wheat, a wheat beer named for the gap just up the road, and Juicy Moves, a juicy IPA. Fall brings 13.Five Oktoberfest, the brewery's ode to the German festival lager. These come and go, so what's pouring depends on when you visit — the current tap list lives on the brewery's What's On Tap page.

Then there's the Barrel House series, the reason serious beer drinkers make the trip. These beers — experimental brews plus the award-winning imperial stout Dark Hollow — are aged at the Blue Mountain Barrel House in Arrington, a separate facility known for its barrel-aging work. Dark Hollow is the headliner: a barrel-aged imperial stout with a reserve variant, Concealed Darkness, for those who want to go deeper. The barrel program also turns out sour witbiers under the "on Acid" banner — Raspberries on Acid and Key Lime on Acid — along with seasonal oddities like Spooky, a barrel-aged pumpkin ale, and Snow Day, a spiced winter stout.

Beyond the beer, the lineup stretches to Mountain Tea, a hard iced tea, and Monticello Mountain Ale, brewed with local honey — small collaborations and one-offs that keep the board changing.

The setting

Blue Mountain sits far enough up the mountain that the view is part of the order. The brewery leans into its farm identity without much fuss about it: the hops grow on site, the beer is made on site, and the mountains do the rest. It's the kind of place where you can settle in for an afternoon, work through a flight, and eat a real meal from the kitchen rather than treating food as an afterthought. The wide daily hours — open by late morning, running into the evening — mean it works as a lunch stop, a post-hike reward, or a long dinner.

If you go

Blue Mountain Brewery is at 9519 Critzer Shop Rd, Afton, VA 22920, on the western slope of the Blue Ridge near Rockfish Gap. Reach the brewpub at (540) 456-8020. Hours run 11 AM to 10 PM Monday through Saturday and 11 AM to 9 PM on Sunday. The full beer list, seasonal releases, and the day's taps are on the Blue Mountain Brewery website. If you're mapping a Nelson County beer route, this is a natural first or last stop — the barrel-aged pours here point the way to the Barrel House in Arrington, where the rest of the story is told.

More brewery in Crozet

Brewery

Decipher Brewing

Brewery in the Crozet area.

Brewery

Glass Half Full Taproom

Brewery in the Crozet area.

Brewery

Pro Re Nata Brewery

Crozet's flagship music venue. Founded 2015 by Dr. John Schoeb. Live music nearly every night.

Brewery

Starr Hill Brewery Crozet

Production brewery and taproom. Free weekend live music. Bluegrass jam 2nd Thursday of each month.

← Back to the Crozet business directory