Watch tonight’s Monday Night Football game and you’ll see the Kelce brothers on opposite sides of the broadcast. Travis Kelce will star on the field for the Kansas City Chiefs, and Jason Kelce will star on ESPN’s studio set.
But they’ve joined forces on a new entrepreneurial venture: Garage Beer.
“It was just an opportunity to be part of a brand that I really enjoy,” Travis Kelce, the Chiefs tight end, exclusively shared.
Other notable investors in the beer company include Fast N’ Loud star Richard Rawlings, Detroit Lions center Frank Ragnow and former Green Bay Packers linebacker A.J. Hawk, but the Kelce brothers have significant ownership in the company.
“They’re by far the largest investors,” Garage Beer CEO Andy Sauer said. “When we were forming the partnership with them, it was very important that the ownership they had be super meaningful and represent the amount of effort that they wanted to put in to building the business.”
Sauer, who previously worked at Jim Beam, wanted to inject the same kind of detail into light beers that craft breweries have put into more heavy-bodied drinks.
Jason in particular was curious about the brewing process, and Garage Beer uses a higher percentage of grain in its classic regular and lime flavors.
When the Kelces tasted the two styles, they were surprised it was just 95 calories.
“There’s a lot more body, a lot more flavor to a Garage Beer,” Sauer said, “than the other domestic beers they were used to drinking.”
Another aspect that appealed to the brothers, who grew up in Cleveland and went to college at the University of Cincinnati, is that Garage Beer is headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, where Hawk starred at Ohio State.
“It’s an Ohio brand,” Travis said. “And I always like to give back to my roots.”
Travis and Sauer, who have known each other seven years, also have shared roots. They previously partnered on Hilo, a nutritional company specializing in gummies, which Sauer founded and then sold off.
Afterwards Sauer kept in regular touch with Travis’ business management team who hail from Cleveland.
Travis Kelce, who grew up in Cleveland, is a major investor in the Ohio beer brand.
The Garage Beer brand itself has been on the market since 2018, but Sauer bought it from Braxton Brewing Co. in 2021.
Sauer and his team liked the existing Garage Beer lager but tweaked the recipe to reduce some of its hoppiness while also changing the design of the can before relaunching in January of 2023.
“I love just kind of what I felt the brand could be,” Sauer said. “Everybody remembers that moment when they had that first beer with their dad in the garage, and I think there’s something in that — that is so nostalgic for people.”
The Kelces officially came on board on June 12, 2024. And since then, sales of Garage Beer — which already had grown 252% in 2023 and became the best-selling craft light beer in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana — blew up even more.
It was initially distributed in 12 states, is now in 30 states and is slated to be in all 50 by January.
“(It’s) largely been driven off of the support they lent to the brand,” Sauer said, “and the awareness they’ve built.”
Jason drew attention after wearing a Garage Beer work shirt at Travis’ Kelce Car Jam in Kansas City, and a shirtless Garage Beer car wash video, involving Jason, drew 3.4 million views on X.
The Kelces, who co-host the popular New Heights podcast named after their Cleveland roots, are clearly the right pair to not only promote Garage Beer, but also invest in it.
“We are light beer drinkers,” Jason said in a statement. “The brand fits my lifestyle, and having a few beers is a great excuse to get the neighbors together.”