Evergreen Farm Brewing Keeps It “Ale” in the Family

The sign announcing you’ve arrived at Evergreen Farm Brewing, located south of Metamora, Illinois, is rather small, and that’s both accidental and intentional.

“We started out small just to get our feet wet,” says Adam Sommer, owner of the craft brewery. “But as we grew, people consistently said they enjoy a place that doesn’t feel so commercialized. Out here, it feels like you are just hanging out at a friend’s farmhouse enjoying a beer.”

Connection to the land and to the community is a driving force for Evergreen Farm Brewing. And it was a combination of life events that brought Sommer back to the family farm and turned him into a brewer.

See more: Salger’s Ostrich Products “Meats” a Need With Red Meat Alternative

No Place Like Home

Sommer grew up on the farm, which has been in his family since the mid-1800s. The farm once encompassed a 10-acre orchard, produce patch and more than 200 acres of farmland. Sommer’s father, Clint, grew corn, soybeans and occasionally oats.

However, in 1994, most of the farm fields were sold because the acreage wasn’t sufficient in the modern farm market, but the family kept the farmhouse and several outbuildings. Then, Sommer became an electrician, moving to the greater Peoria area when he married and started a family.

However, when his wife, Melissa, took a new job, and his children were approaching high school age, the family moved back to the farm in 2017. It was closer to Illinois State University, where Sommer was working on a degree to teach math.

Sitting on the farmhouse’s front porch, Sommer realized he still had strong ties to the land, but his children didn’t.

“There was really nothing happening on the farm as we’d long ago ceased planting row crops, and I started thinking it would be nice to have some sort of operation here,” Sommer says.

He and Melissa enjoyed visiting destination breweries and wineries while on vacation, and one day they counted the number of cars traveling on their road.

“We thought, ‘We could do a craft brewery here,’” Sommer says.

So, he decided not to teach math and started teaching himself how to brew beer instead.

See more: Brewin’ Hope Coffeehouse Pours A Cup of Ambition for Employees with Special Needs

Hops in the Heritage

He’s not the first Sommer to brew beer on the property. His great-grandfather, Al, was a homebrewer. One winter evening, Al hosted an elders’ meeting from the Mennonite Church.

“Something was off that made that batch build up too much pressure, and it was popping the caps off the bottles,” Sommer says of the family legend. “All the elders heard the noise and asked what was going on down in the basement. My great-grandpa didn’t want to admit he had all this beer down there, so he just said we had rats in the cellar.”

See more: Illinois Farm Bureau Roots Beer Toasts Farmers

Sommer pays homage to his great-grandfather with Rats in the Cellar, a Belgian blond beer. Other customer favorites include Heritage Ale, an American amber ale crafted with Bloody Butcher corn and Willamette hops grown on Evergreen Farm; Wash House IPA, named after the farm’s taproom and brewing building; and Dusty Sunset, a wheat beer named after sunset skies during harvest season.

Sommer grows both Cascade and Willamette hops on structures he calls “hopzebos,” which are garden gazebos he’s turned into a trellis for the hops to vine on.

“I can’t grow enough hops for everything we brew, but it’s nice to have some growing on the farm,” he says, noting he’s also growing two kinds of basil, which end up in a stout as well as in a beer called Almost Like Thanksgiving, which features both hop varieties, basil and sage.

See more: Illinois Farm Stays Welcome Visitors to Enjoy a Rural Retreat (VIDEO)

From Ground to Growler

At Evergreen Farm Brewing, visitors can try a beer in the taproom, which was previously the farm’s wash house.

“It has a full basement, and that’s where I brew,” Sommer says. “Wash houses, which is truly where my grandparents washed their clothes, were pretty common, but having a basement under them is unique. My great-grandpa stored his homebrewing stuff down there, too.”

Seating is limited in the small taproom, so Sommer turned the farm shop into a tasting room. He’s reconfigured an old bench with a new top for that space. On the front patio, he repurposed an old grain drill into a table.

“I was on the tractor the last time we used that grain drill planting oats,” Sommer says. “I like using things we have around here and repurposing them.”

Visitors are encouraged to bring food, lawn chairs and even yard games for a day enjoying and exploring the farm.

“We have families all the time who bring a blanket and a box of food and just hang out,” Sommer says.

Throughout the warmer-weather months, Evergreen Farm Brewing also hosts special events, including yoga, movie nights and bag tournaments. In 2024, Sommer developed the Midwest Skies Music Series in collaboration with Slow Hand Craft BBQ, hosting musical acts at the farm on select weekends from spring through fall.

Sommer’s goal is to offer not only a great-tasting beer, but also a direct connection to farming from which the ingredients originate.

“Our motto is ‘From Ground to Growler,’” Sommer says. “While I can never grow all our ingredients, I want to have enough where people can see it growing, smell it, touch it and know that’s what goes into our beer.”

See more: Chicago’s Wild Blossom Meadery Introduces New Generation to Ancient Elixir