The seeds for Kevin Youkilis’ second career were planted while criss-crossing the country playing professional baseball for the Boston Red Sox.
The two-time World Series Champion said he would often visit craft breweries or sample the local options during road trips. In some cities, such as Kansas City, the home team made it easy, serving offerings from Boulevard Brewing Company in the clubhouse.
Getting up for those games, playing at the highest level of competitive baseball, for world championships, required a lot of adrenaline.
“A good beer after a game was everything to calm my nerves, to get me to slow down, to get me to bed,” he said. “You have to recover.”
In Episode 2 of the Brewbound Podcast’s third season, Youkilis shared that he began thinking of his next career in the craft brewing industry long before his playing days ended in late 2014.
In 2016, Youkilis made his move into craft beer, acquiring the former Los Gatos Brewery with his brother and relaunching the brand as Loma Brewing Company.
After four years in the business, Youkilis said Loma Brewing is still finding its niche. Part of the dream is growing from an 11,000 sq. ft. brewpub in Silicon Valley to a larger manufacturing facility in a more blue collar area of California.
“That’s our goal,” he said. “Through that, we’ll kind of figure out who we are, what we are and where we want to go. But our mission is really to bring the community together.”
For Youkilis, that means bringing craft beer to traditionally underserved communities through multiple taproom locations. However, it won’t be using his celebrity to sell beer or define his new career.
“We don’t have baseball pictures of me in there,” he said of his brewpub. “We don’t have anything to do with my past career. I think that’s our goal and vision is to empower the people within [Loma].
“I don’t want it to be about me. I want it to be about them.”
Listen to the latest episode above, or find it on popular platforms such as iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher and Spotify. New episodes of the Brewbound Podcast are published Thursdays.
For questions, comments or suggestions, please email podcast@brewbound.com.