Walk into Free Roam Brewing Company on Main Street, and you immediately sense it’s a place that is different from your ordinary craft beer pub. There’s a sense of history in the space that includes a 100-year-old well. There’s also a sense of community among its patrons that draws you in and makes you feel like you are experiencing something far more satisfying than a good pint of beer. For CEO and co-founder Jeremy Affeldt, that’s all by design, and it’s a design that began on the diamond of Major League Baseball.
During his days as a pitcher for the San Francisco Giants—a career that included three World Series championship rings—Affeldt recognized a void in men’s lives that wasn’t being addressed. "There are 750 guys in Major League Baseball, and the average salary is $3 million," Affeldt explains. "So, I played with 750 millionaires, and more than 80% of them are unhappy. You have guys buying cars for every day of the week, and they're buying big houses and boats; they look for the models and the actresses. They have all of these things they can't satisfy themselves with because they're just empty."
That emptiness was worsened by insecurity and isolation, and Affeldt realized the challenges he witnessed in professional baseball extended to men from all walks of life. "We're all very insecure because we have to perform every day, and we know we can't," he says. "Over the course of time, they build up these walls. And it's not because they're bad people. I've just learned that men, in general, build up this wall. They don't know if they can do it, and if they do, they don't know if they can maintain it. They don't know if they can be good husbands, fathers, or providers."
He came by these realizations honestly: "When I was going through my divorce, I started learning about myself. I started looking around and saw that men have a hard time being vulnerable not only with their wives or kids but with each other." So, Affeldt decided to do something about it—for himself and others. "What I learned was that healthy relationships do not function without vulnerability. You have to let people know who you are," he said. "My buddies, my close circle of men, cannot protect me if they don't know what they're protecting."
From the beginning, Affeldt has envisioned his brewery as a safe space for men to be open and honest about who they are and what they face. Free Roam's logo combines an image of hops and a buffalo head, an image that "is a homage to our spirit animal, the mighty buffalo. A creature built for the storm, the buffalo symbolizes inner strength, perseverance, and a love of freedom."
The buffalo's instinct is to run into, rather than away from, an approaching storm, which, Affeldt says, inspires him. "I was starting to learn about the buffalo mentality and how buffaloes charge storms,” he elaborates. “That's how I have to get men to look at life. It's not hiding from or running from storms and putting up this facade that says, 'I'm tough.' It's about being present with the storm, admitting you have a storm, and then being man enough to take on that storm."
Affeldt also challenges the stereotypical understanding of a "warrior mentality" by turning it on its head. "It's not saying 'Nothing's wrong. I'm good.' That's not a warrior mentality. That's a coward mentality because it's not good. You're hiding, you're scared, and you're running," he said.
As he ruminated on this idea of vulnerability as the foundation for inner strength and the buffalo’s approach to life's challenges, he started to see community as the framework for connection. He also knew exactly how he would achieve his dreams.
In the Bay Area, Affeldt was invited to speak at a church’s men's night in 2019. The event was on a Saturday night, and he assumed it would be at the church. He knew that a Sunday school room was the last place men wanted to be on a Saturday evening and was not shy about letting the pastor know. To his surprise, the pastor agreed.
"’Yeah, I know. That's why I didn't want to offend you,’" Affeldt recalls him saying. "’I'm putting it on at a brewery.’" Affeldt spoke to 250 men that night. "The men start coming in. I order a beer, light my cigar, and guys start leaving," he recounts. Affeldt and the pastor wondered why a cigar might offend the men. What happened next caught them both by surprise. The men returned with cigars and cigarettes. Affeldt turned to the pastor and commented, "It's called 'safe place.'"
Affeldt spoke to the men that night about vulnerability and the buffalo mentality. "I cried. They cried. And that's when I realized this is the vulnerability I'm looking for. I want to get to the hearts of men where they can be real." As he drove back to San Francisco, he says he felt God directing him to create a place where this could be a regular occurrence.
The following year—as the world reeled and the COVID pandemic raged—Affeldt saw a perfect opportunity to apply the buffalo mentality and charge head-first into the storm by launching Free Roam with guys he got to know at that brewery, manager Brandon Phillips and head brewer Jaron Shepherd. Many called him crazy, but Affeldt remained steadfast. "I'm not nuts. I know why I want to do it. I'm not just wanting to open a beer hall. I have a passion for community and a passion for men. My thought is if I can create an environment where men can be real, get together, and have a brewery, yes, but almost like a pub where you go in, and guys are sitting at tables, and they're hanging out."
And he has seen people form genuine connections. "Be as vulnerable and transparent as possible," he says. "You need to be transparent with everybody and vulnerable with a few. Transparency is just about who I am. If you don't like me, that's fine. I won't play the game of charades and become what you want me to be so I can hang with you. And then there's another circle; they know my deepest, most intimate frustrations and thoughts. Those are the guys that give me wisdom."
What was born out of a commitment to create a safe place for men has expanded its scope to be a place where everyone can be honest, and Affeldt hopes that becomes the legacy of his brewery and his life. "I've seen men cry. I've seen women cry. I've seen marriages hashing out arguments in the corner. I've seen guys figuring stuff out. I've seen business deals. That's life."
freeroambrewing.com | 830-336-5257 | 325 S. Main St.
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“I played with 750 millionaires, and more than 80% of them are unhappy.”
PULL QUOTE 2: “It's not saying, 'Nothing's wrong. I'm good.' That's not a warrior mentality. That's a coward mentality.”
PULL QUOTE 3: “I've seen men cry. I've seen women cry. I've seen marriages hashing out arguments in the corner… That's life.”