Connect
To Top

Meet Jessica Fierro of Atrevida Beer Company

Avatar photo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Fierro.

Jess is by trade a ten year Cosmetologist/Barber and was a professional hairstylist, make-up artist, barber and instructor. Working with her hands and using her creativity is what sets Jess apart from the rest. Her skill in hair color formulation, beer recipe building and leading people is unmatched. She commands a room and can immediately connect with her clients.

Early on Jess showed her leadership working her way up from a Barista to management to training facilitator for Starbucks in San Diego from 1995-99. Then from 1999-2013 Jess was a military spouse, married to Rich Fierro an Army officer, she was the leader of the family readiness groups for his companies and assisted the wives of his Soldiers while he served four combat tours and completed 15 years in the service in numerous duty stations. Her love of country and Soldiers was recognized by her selection for the Order of Molly Pitcher Medallion. She is the mother of two beautiful children Kassy 18 (beer tender and brewer) and Ricky 24 (music engineer). She started training Kassy to brew at age 8, it was Jess’s way to show her daughter that gender boundaries don’t exist in industry if you don’t let them. She is an amazing spirit and the hardest working cosmetologist, brewer, sister, friend, mother, wife, and woman.

Prior to owning and brewing at Atrevida, as a homebrewer, Jess was selected and became the winner of the national homebrew competition called BEERLAND which aired on VICELAND (the channel) season one. Jess competed against competitors here in Colorado, New York, New Mexico and Hawaii and brought the WIN back for Colorado Springs! She also brewed, as a homebrewer, with the Makin’ Noise an all-women’s nonprofit brewer group, Pink Boots Society, and multiple charity organizations across Colorado Springs and Denver. Not only did she brew at home but also interned and guest brewed at various breweries for ten years (2007-17). This from a woman who initially hated beer until she arrived in Germany in 2003 with her husband on orders from the Army and went on a tour of a brewery and tasted what real craft beer could be.

Mrs. Jessica “Jess” Fierro currently works as the Owner and Head Brewer of Atrevida Beer Company responsible for recipe building, brewing and sales operations, scheduling, allocating/ordering resources, and developing/implementing policies, procedures, and plans. She’s the first Latina Brewery Owner and Head Brewer in Colorado. She builds all her recipes and her beers are amazing. The brew house’s she uses are 1bbl and 10bbl and there is only one button between them. When we say handcrafted beer at Atrevida, we mean it. Jess and the ladies are using paddles, diving into tanks, moving hoses and pumps, and taking gravities, nothing is automated. These girls are lifting 50lb bags of grain into the kettle like nobody’s business and not complaining. If ever you wanted to find out what woman’s work was come on down for a 10bbl brew day, most men couldn’t hang.

Atrevida Beer Company is challenging the standard definition of craft beer. We are a female, Latino, and veteran owned brewery and she is designing beers that will entice any beer drinker, with combinations like Fresas Con Crema Cream Ale on Nitro to a Belgian Tripel with Tamarindo. Atrevida is more than a brewery and small business to Jess and she has a vision to bring community together. The company motto is “Diversity, it’s on tap!” We believe diversity is about inclusion and Atrevida Beer Co is demonstrating diversity in everything it does and we live by this motto. Five of our six employees are women. Three of which are Latinas. Our Ownership is broken down by a 10% disabled veteran investor and 90% to Rich and Jess Fierro, both Latino’s, and Disabled Veteran family. Diversity, it’s on tap is prominently displayed on the store front marquee and on our merchandise. We are embracing diversity in each glass and bring a diverse perspective to our industry. We are challenging our customers to engage in dialogue about culture and diversity, at a time when it is needed.

Atrevida is part of the Hispanic Business Council. We were the only local brewery to march in last year’s Pride parade for Colorado Springs. Some of the charities we have worked with are: The El Paso County Justice Center, Black and Latino Leadership Coalition, Peak Parent, Care and Share, League of Women Voters, Air Force 21st Space Wing Booster Club, TESSA, Trunks for Tots, Firefighters Foundation, Empty Stocking Fund, CINCO, the El Paso Democratic Party, Resilience IPA for the Northern California Camp Fire Relief Fund, Healing Pets foundation, Helping Hands Barbers, Makin Noise, Realm of Caring, and many others.

Jess Fierro also hosted the first International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day at her brewery just two months after opening. The brew brings together all women in the craft beer industry in Colorado Springs to brew a batch of beer where proceeds go back to benefit Pink Boots Society. Jess Fierro was successful in forming the Colorado Springs Pink Boots Society and is now the Chapter Leader working to educate and build up women in the craft beer industry in Colorado Springs. She has now built the organization to include 20 of the 25 breweries in town with over 35 members and counting. Jess is also very proud that her daughter Kassy has begun working at the brewery and having been brewing with her since she was 8 is now a member of the Pink Boots Society and is following in her mother’s footsteps.

Jess has won the Bines and Brews People’s Choice for her American Wheat beer “La Gran Senora” and the Denver Bacon and Beer Fest Best Lager category for her Mexican Lager “Delores Huerta.” The brewery was also recently awarded the 2019 Governor’s Minority Small Business Award. As you can see from our community work in our short time being open, Atrevida Beer Co. has lived by our motto and will continue to bring diversity to the forefront. We believe diversity is about inclusion, not exclusion. Atrevida is proud to follow in the footsteps of women like Fannie Mae Duncan. Atrevida is the place to go where nobody is different and everybody is welcome. The doors are wide open for all cultures, races, genders, and ethnicities to sit down enjoy a great beer relax and engage in discussion. Atrevida is putting diversity on tap.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Opening a brewery has been a challenge and I had planned to open three times before Atrevida became a reality. Once in 2013 just as my husband was transitioning out of the Army I had everything negotiated and ready to go for our brewery but my gut told me to back out and we went through a rough patch of about four months where he was unemployed and we struggled to make ends meet. Had we tried to open a business I think we would have failed. I had to trust my instincts and I learned from there to always start from there. We had a second opportunity to open and we had exchanged a down payment on a location but the owner was not willing to work with me on paper and wanted to do things in cash and by a handshake and I had to walk away. Knowing I was committing to a business and not hobby, I took this endeavor seriously and did not allow myself to fall into any emotional decisions.

The third opportunity came with the same brewery we now own. A few years prior to owning this location, a good friend of mine had offered to go in with me to buy the location but the timing was not right. I could not commit to a business at that time as my mother had just been diagnosed with breast cancer and I had to put her and my family first and knew I would be traveling to San Diego to assist my mom as much as I could. Ironically a year later was when I was selected for the BEERLAND TV show and I almost did not appear in the finale as my mom was scheduled for surgery the day, I was supposed to arrive in Los Angeles for the first day of taping. They were gracious enough to hold my spot for me which allowed me to be with my mom. Once she was done with surgery and woke up, she gave me her blessing and I drove from San Diego at 2 am to Los Angeles to begin taping the finale the next morning.
I have been through hardships with my family enduring combat tours, health scares, and losses of close family members and those will always be struggles that will minimize the troubles of business. Keeping a perspective of what is truly important and what real hardship is putting the struggles of business ownership in perspective. Believe me, it isn’t easy but, in my eyes, it is about how you prioritize the things you value in your life and that is how you will always find the joy in what you do.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Atrevida Beer Company – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
I am known for my ability to craft German and Belgian style beers with Latin flavors. I have also been able to take flavors from various cultures and apply them to beers while still maintaining a balance of flavors and retaining the essence of the base beer style I am working with. I am most proud of being a Latina Woman Owner and Head Brewer and making the decisions for this company from top to bottom. My team supports me completely and my husband is my number one fan but to know they are all pushing me forward and implementing my ideas and decisions is what motivates and inspires me to create bigger opportunities for us all. To have a female forward brewery with 5 of 6 employees being women and 4 of the 5 being women brewers to include my daughter I am forging new ground in this small family owned brewery. That sets us apart. They do studies on what women brewed beer does or does not do in the market and here we are making it happen. We are not waiting for someone to say it’s good for business to embrace diversity. We put it on our front marquee. We are opening craft beer to those who may have felt they were not part of that group. We are saying everybody is welcome.

Where do you see your industry going over the next 5-10 years? Any big shifts, changes, trends, etc?
I think the industry is in for a change in a positive direction. Craft beer has been dominated by white male brewers for such a long time, I believe we will see a huge surge of multi cultured brewers and women stepping up into ownership positions and head brewer roles. This will bring a new perspective and fresh take on what the industry needs to look like in the next 20 years. Craft beer has evolved into many different styles and flavors. The industry as a whole has grown but we seem to be doing the same thing. Let’s see what this next generation of young entrepreneurs can do. They don’t seem to feel like they are competing with anyone and they have grown up in a collaborative environment and what a cool industry this would be if the collaboration among breweries exploded and the diversity in ownership and product reflected the population, as a whole. I think we would be far better for it.

Pricing:

  • Pint $5-$6.50
  • Flight of 4 $7.00
  • Flight of 8 $12.00
  • Growler Glass $10.00 Fill $10-$15.00
  • Hats $20.00
  • Shirts $10-14.00

Contact Info:

Getting in touch: VoyageDenver is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

Related Items

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in