PEORIA MAGAZINE September 2023

TURNER CENTER HONOREE

RURAL BUSINESS OF THE YEAR Adam Sommer’s Evergreen Farm can’t brew beer fast enough to meet the demand for it

BY NICK VLAHOS PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

P lants aren’t the only thing growing at Evergreen Farm Brewing. By more than 20%, sales in 2022 exceeded projections at the al most-2-year-old craft brewery located between Metamora and Washington. New construction on the Sommer family farm is underway or on tap. Entertainment options that complement the brewery experience are expected to expand. All this and more helped Bradley University’s Turner Center for Entre preneurship deem Evergreen Farm its Rural Business of the Year.

‘WE MIGHT PUT A NEW BEER ON FRIDAY AND IT’S GONE SATURDAY’ — Adam Sommer It’s heady stuff for owner Adam Sommer, a former electrician who in late 2021 brought the brewery to fruition on land his family had farmed since the 1850s. He said the initial success of his business was not entirely unanticipated, but its rate of growth might be. “I can’t make beer as fast as we’ve been pouring it,” Sommer said recently. “During the summer, we might put a new

Adam Sommer, owner of Evergreen Farm Brewing, gets a kiss from wife Melissa Sommer after an evening of serving beer.

32 SEPTEMBER 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE