The Greek God of Walks is now the Greek God of Hops.

Kevin Youkilis, an infielder who won two World Series rings with the Boston Red Sox during a 10-year Major League Baseball career, wants to become known as much for his IPA as his OBP (on-base percentage).

With several partners, including former Oakland A’s infielder Nick Punto, Youkilis bought, refurbished and reopened the iconic Los Gatos Brewing Co. as the Loma Brewing Co. He is realizing a dream he had while playing ball to create and sell beers that are more tasty and creative than the offerings from Budweiser, Miller and Coors sold at ballparks in which he played.

So far, so good.

One year after Loma opened, it won 2017 California Commercial Beer Brewery of the Year at the state fair by virtue of two gold medals and a silver for three beers that it entered in competition.

“I’m not going to lie to you,” Youkilis said. “It was up there with winning the World Series, just the high we had from that.”

This is not a typical athlete-turned-restaurateur story.

Most athletes who enter the business have little skin in the game and merely sell their name to the investors who run the joints. The athletes rarely appear, and when they do, their job is to shake hands with customers who come for the name and the gobs of memorabilia on the walls.

Youkilis has done the opposite. He invested his own money into Loma and spends five days a week at the business, which brews about 600 barrels a year. He hopes to establish a career that will lead to commercial brewing and a life in the beer business for himself and his family for generations to come.

Loma Brewing Co. is not a shrine to Youkilis or his more famous brother-in-law, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. Customers are not wowed by photos of Youkilis leaping into his teammates’ arms when the Red Sox broke an 86-year World Series championship drought in 2004, his rookie season, or won again three years later.

There are no photos on the walls. Youkilis did not affix his name to the establishment.

“I’m not a Hall of Famer. My name doesn’t travel that much,” he said. “I felt it didn’t fit right. I wanted an establishment where the beer and food talk for themselves, and not having people come here just because they’re sports fans.”

Nor does the Greek God of Walks specialize in Greek food at Loma, maybe because he is not Greek. He is Romanian on his father’s side and West Virginian on his mother’s side. Her family has ties to the Revolutionary War.

Youkilis was nicknamed the Greek God of Walks by A’s general manager Billy Beane, who appreciated Youkilis’ rare patience at the plate as a minor-leaguer and high on-base percentage, which the A’s prize. Author Michael Lewis related the anecdote in his 2003 book, “Moneyball.”

Youkilis ran with it. His Twitter handle is @GreekGodOfHops. That’s also the name of the brew pub’s double IPA, one of its five permanent offerings.

The Cincinnati native retired from baseball after a season in Japan at age 34, largely because of a persistent foot injury, but also because his wife, Julie, was about to give birth to their third child.

“Once you get a bunch of injuries, it becomes more of a job,” Youkilis said. “The grind of a baseball season can be enjoyable, but it also can take away from your life, and I wasn’t ready to take that stress again.”

Youkilis settled in the Bay Area, whence his wife and the rest of the Brady family hail. He retired after asking the A’s and Giants whether they wanted to sign him as a utility player. Both said no.

Youkilis became interested in craft brews while playing in Boston. Whenever the Red Sox went on the road, he dragged teammates to brew pubs to taste beer they could not buy in other cities.

He decided early into retirement that he wanted to brew beer commercially and sought advice from friends he had made in the industry. They suggested he start small with a brew pub, teaming with his brother Scott to get one going. Scott Youkilis is a classically trained chef who landed in San Francisco independently of Kevin and opened Hog & Rocks oyster bar in the Mission.

Kevin Youkilis moved to Los Gatos from the Peninsula and found that the owners of Los Gatos Brewing Co. wanted to sell. The Youkilises found their spot. They also found resistance from local residents who did not like the changes the new owners made to the interior of the restaurant and the menu.

“I still have postcards from people who wrote nasty stuff,” Youkilis said. “Like I used to do in baseball, I used it like a chip on my shoulder to make me work harder and push forward in life.

“It worked in my other job really well, to kind of take the hate and run with it, and use it to guide me to have more success down the road.”

The Youkilis brothers had to hire a staff, most importantly a brewmaster, and picked Warren Billups. The Santa Cruz native was making beer commercially, wanted to switch to a brew pub and had no idea who Kevin Youkilis was before they met.

“I’m not a baseball fan by any stretch of the imagination,” Billups said.

Billups is partial to lagers and German brews, but the national palate has turned to hoppier beers like IPAs, which he said Loma needed to brew “to appease the masses and pay the bills.”

The name Loma chose for theirs? Appeasement American IPA.

Appeasement won a gold medal at the state fair. So did the Summer is Coming maibock. The No Oranges Allowed American pale wheat ale won silver.

Billups and his assistant, a Scot named Brogan Hunter, seem to be doing something right. Beer sales doubled quarter over quarter in one year.

Loma’s manager, Dan Reineke, was Youkilis’ roommate at the University of Cincinnati. The executive chef, Aubree Arndt, studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Arizona.

Youkilis still has a hand in the game as a special assistant to Cubs president Theo Epstein, his former general manager in Boston. Youkilis could see himself diving back into baseball more once his three children are older. He also can see himself becoming a commercial brewer.

Retired ballplayers often struggle to find a purpose once they leave the adrenaline rush of competition. So far, Youkilis has not.

“I just know you can never replicate it,” he said. “I’m not the type of person who wants to replicate it. You hold that feeling in as much as possible and know you’re never going to get it again and accept it. It’s a hard thing, and a lot of guys turn to different vices.”

Bad beer is a vice. Good beer, as the Greek God of Walks and Hops will attest, is a virtue.

Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: hschulman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hankschulman