HOOSIER ARTISAN

Hoosier Artisan: Wever’s Smoke Eaters BBQ Sauce

By Kylee Wierks | November 15, 2014

Photo courtesy of Arron Wever

Arron Wever wears many hats—paramedic, firefighter and, of course, barbecue sauce maker and creator of Wever’s Smoke Eater BBQ Sauce.

Arron’s grandfather made his own barbecue sauce for years and after his grandfather passed away, Arron decided to carry on the barbecue sauce-making tradition. He took his grandfather’s recipe and adapted it to his own tasting, making it a bit thicker. And two years ago, after a lot of thought, hard work and sampling by the Ellettsville Fire Department, he turned his homemade barbecue sauce into a business.

Arron is involved in every part of Wever’s Smoke Eaters BBQ Sauce. The sauce is made in Bloomington’s Pizza X kitchen and Arron oversees the entire process to ensure high quality. And his mission has always been to produce a barbecue sauce much healthier than typical store-bought sauce, so he orders special ketchup for his sauce that doesn’t have artificial flavoring or high-fructose corn syrup. This is one reason why Wever’s Smoke Eaters BBQ Sauce is the offi-cial barbecue sauce provider for IU Health.

Wever’s Smoke Eaters BBQ Sauce sells four different sauces appropriately named after the vari-ous levels of fires—False Alarm, First Alarm, Second Alarm and Third Alarm, with False alarm being sweet and not spicy at all and Third Alarm being the spiciest. He uses Worcestershire sauce to give his sauce a bit of tanginess, and the peppers he uses determines the level of heat for each sauce. His First Alarm sauce is his best seller because it has just a little bit of heat, but overall it’s still pretty sweet.

You can purchase Wever’s Smoke Eaters BBQ Sauce online and at these select stores in Mon-roe County: IGA in Ellettsville, Marsh and all Bloomingfoods locations. Each 21-ounce glass bottle of barbecue sauce is $6.