Jefferson, Thomas (1743–1826), is most famous as the principal author of the Declaration of Independence and as a politician who later served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. Like many gentlemen farmers of his day, his estate near Charlottesville, Virginia, included a brewery. Early on, his wife Martha brewed 15-gal batches of beer almost every 2 weeks. But when Jefferson designed his architectural masterpiece, Monticello, early plans included a brewing room and a beer cellar. The execution of these plans, however, had to wait until after Jefferson’s retirement from political life. Already in his seventies, Jefferson finally wrote for assistance to English master brewer Joseph Miller, then living in central Virginia. Miller joined Jefferson at Monticello and the pair finally built the brewery. Jefferson also began malting his own grain. Because no barley was grown at Monticello, Jefferson’s mashes consisted of a mixture of “wheat or corn,” as a plaque at Monticello explains, along with hops grown on his estate. Jefferson preferred bottling his beers and used corks to seal them. Eventually, one of Jefferson’s slaves, Peter Hemings, a cook and tailor whom Miller taught to brew, took over brewing operations. By all accounts, Hemings’ ales enjoyed a great reputation among Jefferson’s neighbors and visitors. Jefferson wrote in an 1817 letter to Miller, “Peter’s brewing of the last season I am in hopes will prove excellent. At least the only cask of it we have tried proves so.” Hemings had taken to brewing, said Jefferson, “with entire success” using “great intelligence and diligence.” In another letter to his successor as President, James Madison, in 1820, Jefferson praised Hemings as “our malter and brewer.”