Evanston Homebrewer Dreams Big With Award-Winning Beer

When Cesar Marron learned that his Polish wheat beer had made the final round of Sam Adams’ national home-brewing competition, he panicked. 

“I didn’t have any more beer left, and I couldn’t make any more that week,” says the software engineer and Evanston resident.

The rules for the LongShot American Homebrew Contest required Marron to submit three more bottles to the judges, but he had given the rest of the beer away or submitted it to other competitions, including one at the Indiana State Fair. 

"It Was Almost Like It Was Meant to Happen"

There was only one thing to do. Marron called the officials at the Indiana State Fair and drove the nearly 200 miles to pick up the only three bottles left of his Grätzer brew. 

“It was almost like it was meant to happen,” says Marron, who learned this fall that his brew was among two winners out of 1,000 entries in the competition. The other winning recipe was an American Stout, while a third winning recipe for a pineapple IPA was named from an internal competition at Sam Adams.

The judges at Sam Adams liked the unique style of the Grätzer, which is a Polish wheat beer that is light in alcohol and made with malt that has been smoked, and said it "packs a punch of smoky sweet flavor" with "spicy and herbal notes." 

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Marron, who has been brewing beers in his basement for three years, says he became interested in making the Grätzer because of its history. The recipe is said to be 100 years old, and no brewery has packed it since 1993, according to Marron. 

He was also intrigued by the challenge of making a beer that’s light in alcohol content but still has lots of flavor. Typically, beer gains most of its flavor—and alcohol content—from malt, or grain soaked in water, then dried. While the Grätzer doesn’t have as much malt, the heirloom malt Marron did use lends the beer more flavor because it was smoked. 

“That little sweetness from the smoke, and that smoke on your nose and on your palate actually adds a lot of character that would otherwise be missing,” he explains. 

Sam Adams will fly Marron to Boston to brew the beer with the company’s brewer, and then it will be distributed around the country in March. His beer will be sold in a six-pack along with two beers from each of the two other contest winners: an American stout and a pineapple IPA.

Marron Hopes to Join Ranks of Homebrewers Turned Brewery Owners

Marron got his start brewing with the Evanston Homebrew Club, which meets once a month at Prairie Moon. The Evanston homebrewers are among scores of clubs around the nation, as homebrewing grows in popularity along with a rise in popularity of small-scale breweries making “craft beer.” There are more than 2,500 craft breweries nationwide, as compared to 83 in the 1980s, according to Sam Adams.

That’s a trend Marron wants to jump on, too. He says he has had preliminary talks with the city about starting his own brewery in Evanston one day, joining ranks with two other LongShot winners have also gone on to become professional brewers, according to Sam Adams.

He would also be joining ranks with Temperance Beer, Evanston’s first brewery, which opened this summer. It’s a historic happening in the city where the Temperance movement was founded, and the community that prohibited the sale of alcohol until the 1970s. 

“Evanston is coming along,” says Marron, noting that two other brewpubs are also slated to open later this year. “I think there’s room for a lot more.” 

In the meantime, he’s working on more creative concoctions in his Evanston home, including a sour Russian bear called kvass, and a watermelon-flavored wheat beer. 

“In the end, the pure enjoyment is to see other peoples faces when they drink my beer and like it,” Marron says. “Sharing with friends and family probably the single largest reason I keep brewing.”