You might know Kevin Youkilis from his days as a major league third baseman. Or you might know him as the “Greek God of Walks”, as he was made famous in Michael Lewis’ Moneyball when the Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane admitted his intense desire to acquire the patient slugger. Or you might just know him as “Youuuuk”, if you’re from Boston, where Youkilis played nine years with the Red Sox. Since he retired in 2014, Youkilis has remained close to baseball. He still advises his old general manager Theo Epstein, who is now with the Cubs, at least. But he’s also made some changes to his life. Most notably, he moved to Los Gatos, California and started Loma Brewing Company near Old Town. He hasn’t quite traded in his bat for a brewing paddle—he’ll taste the beers, but he’s not in the back, cleaning tanks and developing recipes. Instead, it’s his career-long love of beer that has led him here. We sat down over a nice, crisp Kölsch at his brewery and talked about beer, baseball and business. What was your inspiration for getting into beer? I was playing baseball around the whole country, getting to travel, getting to see different places. But I started to get to know beer really because of a great liquor store that had a huge line of beer product from around the country—Marty’s right off the pike in Newton. I always give them a shout-out, because they were really good about introducing me to beers from different places, like the West Coast. Then, I got to go to the West Coast and actually go to those breweries and try them out. I was always very fortunate in my profession because of the travel. Kansas City was always the best stadium to visit because of all of the Boulevard. Then they finally got into the ballpark, which was great. Why do baseball and beer go so well together? I joke around more than ever, now that I don’t play the game, that you need beer to watch a baseball game. I didn’t realize how slow the game is if you’re not playing, so the beer actually speeds up the game in some ways and adds to the fun of the experience. There’s that similarity, that both beer and baseball have bred that passion, because you’re sitting there for three hours thinking about it. When you go to a baseball game and have a nice cold beer and sit in the sun, that’s part of the game.

Were you ever tempted to start this in Boston, or Cincinnati or Chicago? Why here? We moved twenty miles away from here six or seven years ago, because my wife is from San Mateo. My brother is also a chef in San Francisco. He ran Maverick, then Hi-Lo Barbecue, which is now Lazy Bear and is killing it. Now he’s helping at Harry’s on Fillmore. He was really instrumental in getting this open, I had no idea what I was doing. He went to ‘chef’ school in Johnson & Wales, in Providence, Rhode Island, and he loves the barbecue, being from the Midwest and all. That was our life growing up. What have you learned about beer during the past two years running this brewery? I’ve learned that it’s a business that keeps evolving, and you have to evolve with it. There are new beer styles every month, and you have to keep going with it. Some test the waters too much—you almost go, ‘Whoa, that’s not beer’—and others stick with what they’re doing and try to do the classics. I just try beers and I like what I like. Unfortunately, I will keep trying sours and keep not ordering it. It’s not my cup of tea. You gotta find your niche. What are your favorite styles? I’m a hoppy guy. I definitely like hops. I can go for a good saison, here or there, on the drier side. Within IPAs, are you about the haze? Have you tried the Brut IPAs? We’re actually doing a Brut IPA soon. The hazies, it’s not my favorite style of IPA, because I’m more of a West Coast IPA guy. I’ve had a couple Revisions recently that were really delicious, and I didn’t even know the Knee Deep connection until recently. I love a well-made IPA. I totally get the haze craze—it’s a great beer, you don’t taste the alcohol, which is kinda scary—but the one thing about the haze is that it bridges the gap between people that want to be a West Coast IPA fan are those aren’t quite there yet. Like, I want to be a sour fan, if someone could come up with a bridge to sours…maybe that’s why I like saisons. Hoppy sours maybe? Maybe! But my whole philosophy here is not about what I like. It’s about what the people like.

You’re not going to try and go deep when the wind is blowing in. You’ll always find a great West Coast IPA here.”