A Peak Pint

In 2017, Blue Mountain Brewery Celebrates A Decade Of Serving Great Beer In The Shadow Of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.

- Amity Moore Joyce

IT TURNS OUT there is at least one place Virginia Tech and University of Virginia fans can gather in (mostly) neutral territory—Blue Mountain Brewery in Afton, Virginia. Although owner Taylor Smack admits he would like to joke about Tech, he chooses instead to accept the UVA football team’s multiyear losing streak and “keep my mouth shut.” He knows sports fans of all stripes come together over beer, so he’s made watching football—both collegiate and NFL—a part of the experience at his brewery nestled in a valley among the Blue screens: “We show largely college and NFL football, college hoops, [but also] anything someone wants us to turn to and any big event,” such as The Masters or the Olympics, he says. When looking around the Blue Mountain spread, it’s clear that the TVs are just one of the ingredients that goes into Smack’s recipe for an exceptional destination brewery.