(upbeat country rock music) - Welcome to "A Shot of Ag".

I'm your host, Rob Sharkey.

I'm a fifth generation farmer from just outside of Bradford, Illinois.

They say without farmers, you'll be naked, you'll be hungry, and you'll be sober.

Let's focus on that last one, shall we?

Today we're gonna talk with Adam Sommer.

How you doing, Adam?

- [Adam] Good.

- You're from Metamora?

- Yup.

- Okay.

- Metamora.

- Is that where you grew up?

- Yup.

So I've lived in that farmhouse longer than anywhere else.

We moved back out to the farm just after my third birthday, and my grandpa moved off, and then once I got married, of course moved out when I was 21, and we just moved back there in 2017.

- How old a house is it?

- It's around 150 years old, so.

Don't know the exact date.

Of course like any farmhouse, it's been added onto.

- Yeah.

- Who knows how many times, so yeah.

It's interesting, 'cause it's got two main parts to it.

In one spot of the house, it's literally a doorframe width and that's it.

- Oh really?

- That's the width of the house, yeah.

(both chuckling) - We did that, too.

A house that's over 100 years old, and we thought how quaint, and that, til you get to doing wiring, and the HVAC, and all this stuff.

(both laugh) You earn it, don't you?

- Yeah, and it never ends.

You get done with one, and it's on to the next.

- It hasn't ended yet.

So did you grow up on a farm?

- Yup, grew up out there.

So we lived in Washington until I was three, and then we moved back out.

- Okay.

And then did you go off to school?

- So after high school, I actually got in the electrical apprenticeship.

- [Rob] Oh yeah?

- So I was a union electrician for- - [Rob] So you can wire your house?

- Yeah.

- Oh, nice.

- I had some wiring to do this week to get my outdoor bar done.

(both chuckling) - You obviously are the owner of Evergreen Farm Brewing.

- Mm-hmm.

- So tell me about that.

How'd you even get started into it?

- Yeah, it wasn't planned at all.

It's been fun ever since, but we moved back out to the farm, like I said earlier.

And at that time, I was actually going back to school.

I got a degree in mathematics, and I was gonna start teaching- - Really?

- High school math, yeah.

- Are you smart?

- I guess.

- Smarter than I am, I could tell you that.

(both laugh) - I've always enjoyed teaching and math, and was gonna go for it, and then in the middle of all that, everything changed.

My wife got a new job, and we moved back out to the farm, and just kinda started talking that it'd be nice to have something going on the farm again since we're not doing conventional farming anymore.

- [Rob] Yeah.

Where'd you meet your wife?

- [Adam] Actually at church in Washington.

- So a bar?

You're just lying.

(both laugh) Now did she come from a farm?

- No, no she grew up in East Peoria.

- [Rob] So how was that, moving out to the middle of nowhere?

- It was an adjustment.

I know the very first week that we moved back out to the farm, she laughed 'cause we'd go to the grocery store in Metamora, and it's like an entire, you have to plan for it, because you know everybody in the grocery store, 'cause it's small town, and she just wasn't used to that.

- What do you mean, you gotta plan for it?

Just that everybody's gonna see you?

- It's gonna take longer than normal, 'cause you gotta stop and talk- - Oh.

- Yeah.

- I got you.

She could be rude and just walk past people.

- Well, yeah.

Yeah.

(both chuckle) She tries not to.

- Okay, so you wanna do something with the farm?

- Mm-hmm.

- Then what?

- Yup.

So my wife and I have always liked going to breweries and wineries.

We usually- - [Rob] All right, stop right there.

- All right.

- Really?

I mean, obviously you do.

You said my wife and I love going to breweries.

Is that the truth?

- She does, yup.

I think she enjoys the wineries a little more than breweries, but she likes both.

- Okay.

I'll assume you're not lying, but please continue.

- So with that being kind of in our background, we've been going down to Southern Illinois at least once or twice a year for the last probably 10 years, and hitting the wine trail down there.

- [Rob] Where's that at?

- By Carbondale.

So the Shawnee Wine Trail.

- Makes sense.

- Yeah.

Just south of Carbondale.

- Do they make good wines?

- It's pretty good.

So there's certain varieties of grapes that grow well down there, and it's a different wine than like what you'd get from California.

I know some people are like, ah, if it's not from California, or France.

- Well it's funny, we just interviewed a gal that farms down there, and she was telling us how their wines are preferred, honestly, everybody says, oh the wines in my area are good, but generally, they're lying to you.

Maybe she was telling the truth.

- Yeah, I like them.

The one down there that I really like is called Norton.

It's a a Cynthiana grape.

Cynthiana Norton, there's two of them, the background of it, there's two of them that they later found out it was actually the same strain, so there's two names for the same grape, basically.

- [Rob] Oh, okay.

- They grow down there in Southern Illinois and Missouri.

- The Southern Illinois grape controversy.

- Yeah.

- You heard it here first.

So you and your wife are down there, you're drinking away.

Then what?

- Yup.

So, moving out to the farm, we just kinda decided it'd be nice to have something going there, and with the layout of the farm, we could see that a winery could happen out there, so we started talking about doing that, but our soil, it's good farm ground.

It's too good of soil for wine grapes.

So we had to switch gears.

Like well, we could do beer instead.

That ties into farming.

So hadn't brewed beer at all at that point.

Decided if we were gonna start a brewery, better figure out if I can make beer.

Started doing home brew stuff in January of 2020.

- You just got like the Friar Tuck's, and get the kit?

- Yeah, yup.

Started with a kit of five gallon batches, and out there on the patio and the burner.

- How was it?

How was that first batch?

- The first couple weren't that great, but they started to turn out pretty good, and I think I'd made four or five batches that were a kit, a recipe, you just got everything, and followed the instructions.

After that, I started writing my own recipes.

Those turned out good, and I just never went back.

- How do you even know how to do that?

Writing your own recipe?

It's beer.

- Yeah.

There's countless possibilities.

Different malt bills, hop bills.

Just lot of different varieties.

- [Rob] I don't even know what you're talking about.

- So malt is the grain.

There's different grains, you could use barley, oats, wheat, are the main ones.

And then depending on what kind of hops you put in, and when, and how much, it changes the beer quite a bit.

- Okay.

And then eventually you come to getting stuff that's good and people like?

- Yeah.

- All right, let's quit screwing around.

How do you open these things?

- So these I actually have taped, 'cause it helps them last a little bit longer.

- Yeah.

- So we gotta find the end here.

Which one do you wanna go for?

- Both.

(Adam laughs) - Both of them?

- Yeah.

- So this one I'm working on is the Lightning Strikes Twice.

So it's actually named after a cottonwood tree that we have on the corner of our farm, and it's been struck by lightning twice.

- Okay, cut away while I'm fighting with this stupid.

(Adam laughs) What'd you do to this thing?

- Quality control.

- Can you just unscrew it?

- Yeah.

Yup.

- There, okay.

All right, which one do you want, you wanna try the Lightning Strikes Twice?

- Sure, we can go for it.

Grab your cup there.

- These are not beer mugs.

- No, but they'll do.

How much you want?

Enough for a taste?

- What the hell's wrong with you, man?

- Go for it?

Well, we got two of 'em here.

- Are we paying for this stuff?

Yeah, that's good.

All right.

- There you go.

- I don't want to drink alone.

- Yeah.

- Lightning Strikes Twice.

Is there a way to fancy drink?

You taste it or smell it?

- Not necessarily.

- No?

- It's good to smell it with the hops in there, cheers.

- All right.

All right, here's the thing.

Breweries, you know, you go to 'em, and everybody's like, oh you can taste the whatever.

It's blah blah.

I don't like 'em.

I generally go to breweries, and I don't like, I don't know if they're too hoppy or whatever.

I could drink this all damn day.

- Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah.

- Thanks.

Pretty good.

- Thirsty?

(Adam chuckling) See, you can always, yeah.

I'll share a cup, man.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- You're not on camera.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

(laughing) Oh, he's running off with it.

(Adam chuckling) - Now we have an issue.

Okay.

You're lucky we've got another bottle up here.

No, no.

- Yeah.

- We'll discuss this later.

All right, so describe this.

What did you do here?

- So this is actually one of my more hoppy beers.

I've kind of been, unintentionally become known for IPAs that aren't too hoppy, they're a little bit more mild.

We have a lot of customers that come in, and they'll say they don't like IPAs.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- They end up trying one of mine, and they really like it.

- [Rob] Why is yours different?

- Like I said, this one's a little more hoppy, but most of them, they're quite a bit more mild.

The first one that became popular is actually before we opened, I did the recipe, and we were going to some shows and doing some samples, and whatnot.

That one's actually called Just the Tip.

So it's got some- - [Rob] This is PBS, by the way.

- Yeah.

(Rob laughs) There's a reason for it.

So it's got- - [Rob] I bet there is.

- Yeah.

It's got fresh growth blue spruce tips.

So in the spring, when the trees are doing the new growth, that fresh tip that comes out that's a softer and lighter green- - Really?

- We pick those, throw it in with the beer, and it creates this nice, soft pine flavor to it.

- That does not sound good.

- It's one of my most- - I'll try it, but- - Popular IPAs.

- It makes me, it sounds like it's gonna taste like gin.

- Not really.

It's subtle enough that it turns out pretty good.

- Really?

- Mm-hmm.

- Okay.

Hurry up, man.

- Yeah.

- We got stuff to do.

So what's this one?

- I took a big swig there.

So this one's Bad at Bags.

It's- - Bad at Bags?

- Little bit more mild, little sweeter, not quite as hoppy, but still definitely an IPA.

- Is there a right way to pour a beer?

- Mm-hmm.

- Was that it?

- It'll work.

(both laugh) So usually, you wanna tilt the glass.

Technically, you should rinse it first so that it actually creates, the inside of the glass is a little bit more slick- - [Rob] If we had a network show, we could do that, but this is where we're at.

- So you wanna tilt the glass and pour on the side.

- [Rob] Okay.

Are we going to afoul the taste that we didn't rinse it?

- No, not too bad.

- Okay, all right.

- We'll make due.

- All right.

- Cheers.

- Bad at Bags.

That's a, the first thing that comes to mind is darker.

- Mm-hmm.

- Is that?

- Yeah.

So there's a little bit more darker malts in here, some crystal malt.

That's where you get that sweetness from, a little bit of caramel.

- [Rob] Don't give me the time signals.

You wanna try it again?

See what I'm dealing with here?

- Mm-hmm.

- [Producer] Let me finish the last one.

- Why are you- - Don't wanna be on camera.

- Why are you stumbling around?

(Adam laughs) - Maybe he did finish the last one.

- I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.

(Adam laughs) - Be honest.

- What do you think?

- Yeah, that's good.

I do think I like this one a little bit more than the first one because of that hoppiness isn't there.

- Mm-hmm.

- I'm a beer connoisseur now.

- Yeah.

- Can I get a second, to.

- Take your time.

- Get the taste buds acclimated.

- Swishing it around.

Yeah, it's very good.

- You can keep the glass.

- Oh, thank you.

- Yeah.

- Man.

- Yeah, I'm expecting most of that bottle back.

(Adam laughs) That's good stuff.

- Yeah, thank you.

- How do you just not drink all day?

- It's tough, yeah.

There's quite a few days, you know, you gotta test the product, quality control.

- When I was raising hogs, the last thing I ever wanted to eat was a pork chop, 'cause I just had too much of it.

Do you just ever like, I don't want to drink any more beer?

- Yeah, yeah.

I mean, occasionally you go on breaks where you try to not overdo it, 'cause you don't want it to become just so commonplace that you lose the knack for it.

You know, you wanna make sure that you're appreciating it, just like your customers are going to.

- So if I go to Evergreen Farm Brewery, what, Brewing?

- Mm-hmm.

- What do I expect?

What's it gonna be like when I go there?

- So, most people that come, they say it's just like pulling into a family friend's house.

We don't have a sign out front, so it doesn't look commercial at all.

- [Rob] You don't have a sign?

- [Adam] No.

- How do you?

I feel like I was just pulling into somebody's place.

- Mm-hmm, and we get that all the time.

There's people that they'll drive right by it, and they'll have to turn around and come back, and then they come in and realize it's there, and they just feel like they were barging in.

- Is that on purpose?

- A little bit.

So we started out, we didn't know exactly how fast it was gonna grow, and we just started with the existing building, so it looked the exact same as it did before.

We just cleaned up a few things.

And people started coming in, and we'd get some that would say hey, you need a sign out front.

And then every time somebody would say that, there would be somebody sitting in the tap room, and they'd say no, don't put a sign up.

We don't want people to know that you're here.

(Rob laughs) - Well see, people just don't wanna see you succeed.

That's a problem.

- They did, but they wanted it for themselves.

They wanted their own space, I think.

- Selfish, yeah.

I get it.

- Mm-hmm.

- So who's going to your brewery?

I mean, were these local people, or are they bikers, or hippies?

Who are you getting?

- We get a good mix of people.

A lot of locals, obviously, 'cause we get some people from Metamora, Washington, Germantown, that they say oh, it's nice to have a place over here that we don't have to drive into Peoria.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- But then we get people from other states, Chicago.

I know early last summer- - [Rob] That's actually in Illinois.

- Yeah.

(both laugh) Yup.

So we had, I think it was early last summer, we had a couple that came in.

They were from, I believe, Maine.

And they were on vacation, and all they were doing was hitting breweries.

- [Rob] That sounds like a great vacation.

- No plan whatsoever.

They just go to a brewery, ask whoever was there where do they need to go next, and just kind of- - [Rob] Do you have a map up?

- We don't.

We've talked about that a bunch.

- Oh, I think you have to.

- Yeah, we need to.

- Okay.

So when you go there, are you just going to be drinking beer?

- So we have beer, summertime, the beer that we make is getting pretty low.

I usually try to keep at least one or two on tap.

We have nine taps total.

- [Rob] Mm-hmm.

- We do run a lot of guest taps, especially in the summertime, but we also have wine from Old Mill up in Metamora.

That's the winery, local winery.

And then we do carry some ciders.

That way if somebody can't drink beer, gluten issues, we have options for them, too.

- Do you ever get that guy in there who's like, I just want a Bud Light?

- Occasionally, and my wife usually hands them a water.

(both laugh) - I wouldn't.

I would have Bud Light on hand and it would be $27 a bottle.

- Yeah.

(both laugh) That's a thought.

We can maybe do that.

- Are you growing any of the ingredients out there?

- Yeah, so I can't grow everything to make all the beers, but we do have some hop-zeboes, we call them.

- Hop-zeboes?

- Yup.

- [Rob] What's that?

- [Adam] It's a gazebo that we grow hops up.

- [Rob] Oh, okay.

- Mostly for looks but we do harvest those hops and use them in certain recipes, and then we have a couple gardens that we have kind of specialty stuff.

- Is Illinois a good place to grow hops?

- If you get the right variety.

- [Rob] Okay.

- So Cascade is the one that we have the best luck with.

- All right.

Like, I don't know.

Like, the best beer makers in the world, where would those hops be grown?

- It depends on what you're making.

Like, I just had this conversation today with another brewer that there's certain beers that they have always been this is how they have to be.

And with the craft beer scene now, it's getting more widespread to where certain things that weren't okay to do before now are, so as far as where those hops come from, it's getting to where it's wherever you want.

- Okay.

What about the bees?

- Mm-hmm.

So we have a few beehives that we started on the farm.

My wife is really into bugs.

Her name is actually Melissa, which means honeybee.

- [Rob] Melissa, what?

- [Adam] Yeah, yup.

- Okay, I didn't know that.

- Yeah.

So she's always been into bugs, always wanted to have beehives.

Once we moved to the farm, we put a few of them in.

We've collected a little bit of honey, but not a lot, so we don't sell honey or anything, but last year, I did start propagating yeast out of the beehives to make beer with.

- Oh.

- Yeah.

- [Rob] I didn't even know that was a thing.

- Yeah.

So there's pretty much yeast on everything, and the bees go out, and they collect everything that's around our property, and out even further, bring it back, there's a concentration in the hives, and then I took that, did a little yeast starter with it, grew it up a few generations, and then pitched it in wort, which is beer before it ferments, and made a beer out of it.

- [Rob] Do you ever get stung?

- [Adam] Yeah, we have.

- Yeah?

- Yeah.

- Hurts.

- Yeah.

(Adam chuckles) - [Rob] Are you going to grow, as far as the bee colonies and that?

- [Adam] We've talked about it.

If we get serious into it, we would probably wanna put hives off of our location, just 'cause we're totally surrounded by- - [Rob] Yeah, you have customers.

- [Adam] Yeah, that's one major concern, but then also being surrounded by fields, the fertilizer and pesticides that they spray on the fields are not good for bees.

- [Rob] Are they?

I mean, you hear that.

- [Adam] It stresses them.

It doesn't kill them totally, but it stresses them out to where it's a factor.

- [Rob] Your motto is "From ground to growler".

That's clever.

- [Adam] Yeah.

- [Rob] Did you come up with that?

- [Adam] I think my wife actually came up with that.

- [Rob] That's what I was guessing.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

Her name means bees?

- Honeybee.

- Yeah, okay.

- Yeah.

- Melissa?

Like in what language?

- [Adam] Uh, I'm not sure.

Latin?

It's probably Latin origin.

- [Rob] Making that up, too.

(both laughing) As you're doing this, as you are seeing people coming from all over to enjoy what you're making, do you ever just sit back and go, wow, that's pretty cool, what we've done.

- [Adam] Occasionally.

Those opportunities don't happen too often, but occasionally it does, and yeah, that's when it kind of surprises you, 'cause it, we knew it had potential starting it out, but otherwise we wouldn't have done it.

- [Rob] Yeah.

- [Adam] But we didn't expect it to grow as fast as it has, so.

- [Rob] So do you think this would be like, I don't know, what you both are doing in the future?

- [Adam] That's our goal, longterm.

She would like to obviously stay and grow more things on the farm, play with her bugs and honeybees.

Yup, expand that part of the operation a little bit more.

- [Rob] Well, I think everything that it would take, you guys have in place.

I mean, obviously you're attracting people there.

If you can attract the locals, I think that goes a long ways, like for that to be, I mean, the whole thing about a brewery is the summer months are money, right?

And anyone can do it, but to go year-round, you have to be able to attract the locals, too.

- [Adam] Right, yeah.

- [Rob] How are you doing that?

- So we definitely do slow down quite a bit in the winter, mostly because we don't have a whole lot of indoor space right now.

This last year, we did over the winter build a greenhouse that we use for seeding, so that's heated.

But yeah, like the saying goes, make hay while the sun is shining.

And in summertime, it's nonstop, and make it while we can.

- So how many times are you brewing a month?

- [Adam] A month?

- [Rob] A week.

- [Adam] A week average is about three to five batches.

- Wow.

- Yeah.

So I'm on a real small system.

Our tap room is in what was the wash house on our farm.

- [Rob] Okay.

- So I think I mentioned that on the podcast.

It's a building that they built specifically to wash clothes in.

There was a gas powered washing machine in there that they would wash their clothes in there.

- [Rob] Gas powered washing machine?

- Yeah.

- That's awesome.

- Yup.

(Rob laughs) Ran off our natural gas well out back.

- Oh, you guys have natural gas?

- Yeah.

- You still got it?

- We don't use it anymore.

They were still running on it when my dad was a kid, but it started to lose pressure, and they switched to propane.

- Yeah, I've got neighbors that like, their house and their shops are all run off natural gas, and it's like, ah.

Man, that would be so nice.

- Yeah.

- All that free heat, just there for the taking.

- The head's still there for it, and with starting a brewery, I kind of kicked around the idea seeing if I could pump it into a tank and then run my brewing operations off of it, which would be really cool, but I don't know if it would just stop producing, and I'd be kinda- - Yeah.

- I'd have to switch everything over, and it'd be a pain.

- Have you thought about getting, I mean, I assume the reason that you're doing the smaller batches is the equipment?

- Mostly the space.

- Yeah?

- So we started in the middle of COVID, and I thought about building the building, but with that risk of not knowing what was gonna happen, we just decided to use what we had, and honestly, that's probably what made us take off as fast as we have, because we've incorporated all that history with old buildings, so.

But that building's only 15 by 15.

- [Rob] But that's what people want, right?

- Yeah.

That's been a big draw.

- So when people stop by and they're, you know, everybody wants to talk to you, right?

Kind of oh, I wanna know the whole history of the place and that.

Do you tell them about the farm and all that?

- [Adam] Oh yeah, yup.

My dad's usually out there, too, and he loves telling stories, yeah.

Yup.

- And your dad, he doesn't farm anymore, then?

- No, no.

- Okay.

- Even when we were farming, he worked his job that he has now, worked full-time during the day, and we farmed basically at night.

- Like five years ago, did you ever think you would be doing this?

- No, not at all.

I hadn't even brewed beer at that point.

- Yeah.

That's what I can't understand, is because people, like they go to school, and they'll be doing this for 20 years, and they come up with a decent beer.

Now I've only tasted two, but I thought they were both really good.

- Yeah, thank you.

- Are you a savant?

- I don't know, I just jumped in, and- - I mean, don't be all humble.

Are you good at this?

- I guess so.

I mean, with the traffic we have through, it's gotta be doing something right.

- Yeah well, again.

I've been to some breweries that have been doing it for a long time, and they've got, like behind the glass, they've got all the shiny stainless steel stuff and whatever, and I'm like man, this place looks awesome, and then you taste their beer, and it tastes like it came from a horse.

- Yeah.

(both laughing) Yeah.

- Do you think you have an advantage doing the smaller batches?

- Uh, I mean, yes and no.

The good thing about the smaller batches is if they do turn out bad, which honestly, I've only had probably two since I started that I decided weren't good enough and dumped them.

It's gonna happen.

But just brewing so often, I have so many different recipes out there now that it's got a wide variety.

- You ever think you'll go onto more the distilling?

- I've never tried it.

It's been talked about, but I don't know if we would ever go that route or not.

This is going good so far, so.

- Is that a different legal- - Yes.

- License, and all that.

- It's a whole, yeah.

Whole 'nother license, so.

- Is this hard to get into, legally?

- It takes some time, yeah.

Especially, like I said earlier, we were starting in the middle of COVID, so it took longer than normal.

- But what else were you gonna do?

- Yeah.

Drink beer.

- Stay six feet away from each other, drink beer?

- Mm-hmm.

- I think it's really cool.

Yeah, it's one of those situations where I don't know if this was ever, like your longterm dream, but it's one of those things where you get into it, and as you're doing it, you're realizing this was a dream I didn't even know was there.

- Mm-hmm, yeah.

- Is that fair?

- Oh yeah.

Yup, it definitely wasn't a longterm dream at all.

It just kinda happened, and the more we talked about it, we were like, well, sounds like it could actually be a thing and decided to go for it.

- If people wanna find you on the internet, social media, where do they go?

- So EvergreenFarmBrewing.com is our website.

EvergreenFarm1858 on Instagram, and then just look up Evergreen Farm Brewing on Facebook.

- Is that when the farm was established, homesteaded?

- So when I was doing the logo, we talked about this earlier, when I was doing the logo, 1858 was the earliest deed that I had found, and I had already ordered some stuff, and had it being made, and then I found another one that was 1852, so it was actually back a little bit further.

- Gotcha.

Do you think we're ever gonna see the other bottle?

- I think it's gone.

I think it disappeared.

- Well there you go.

Adam Sommer from Metamora.

Evergreen Farm Brewing.

Congratulations on all your success.

- Thank you.

- And I love it.

I love it when someone finds a passion they didn't even know was there, and then they're able to share that with the world.

I am going to be stopping there with my wife, and we are gonna see what all you got.

So I'm looking forward to it.

- Yup.

Same here.

- Adam, thank you so very much.

Everybody else, (clicks tongue) we'll catch you next time.

(upbeat country rock music)