When Atrevida Beer Co. in Colorado Springs pours its final pints this weekend, it will close one of the more extraordinary chapters in the state’s beer history.
Before the brewery opened in 2018, founder/co-owner Jess Fierro made a name for herself on VICE’s homebrewing competition show “Beerland.” Fierro won the judges over with a tamarind-infused Bière de Garde and subsequently had the opportunity to turn her recipe into a commercial batch of beer, which was brewed and distributed by Golden Road Brewing out of California.
Atrevida was billed as Colorado’s first Latina-owned brewery and leaned into its Mexican heritage through its beer styles and ingredients. The word atrevida means a daring or bold woman in Spanish, and the company’s slogan has long been “diversity, it’s on tap.”
Fast forward to 2022 and Atrevida Beer Co. became a nationally-recognized name after a mass shooting at Club Q, an LGBTQ+ club in its hometown. Jess, her husband Rich Fierro and their daughter Kassy were watching a drag show at the club the night of Nov. 19 when a gunman opened fire and fatally shot five people. Rich, a U.S. Army veteran, disarmed and hit the gunman saving innumerable lives, police said at the time.
In the wake of that tragedy, Atrevida Beer Co. received an outpouring of support from allies far and wide. Local supporters drained the kegs at the small brewery, and those more distant bought merchandise in shows of solidarity.
The Fierro family was overwhelmed with gratitude and also with grief. As they sought to adapt to their newfound popularity, Jess, Rich and Kassy put their own recovery from the traumatic event on the backburner. The brewery’s closing will finally afford them the chance to recuperate, Jess said in an interview this month.
“Following Club Q, we never really got time to figure ourselves out and work on our mental health. We kind of just got in robot mode and kept going,” she said. “So I think this is time we need to take for ourselves and focus on our family and go from there.”
Other factors related to the aftermath of the Club Q shooting played a role in the decision to close, Jess added. In an effort to serve the locals thirsty to support Atrevida, she sought to upgrade from a manual, 10-barrel brewing system to a larger, digital one. But the new brew house didn’t fit the building and it also appeared inoperable, Jess said. After failed attempts to get the proper permitting to install the system, Atrevida Beer Co. had to sell the equipment earlier this year.
The influx of merchandise purchases also led to unexpected problems, Jess and Rich said, including years-long delays in fulfillments and a lawsuit that they had to settle with their supplier.
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“I’m still, to this day, mailing out T-shirts to folks that have waited,” Rich said. “Been a tough road, even though the intent was great and we appreciate it.”
All of this played out against the backdrop of waning consumer demand for beer, both locally and nationally. Craft beer production and sales have been steadily declining since the pandemic, with only 39% of U.S. breweries reporting annual growth in 2025, according to trade group the Brewers Association.
As the Club Q shooting faded from the news cycle, fewer people traveled to Atrevida’s taproom for drinks.
“The problem is that we just don’t have customer flow coming in locally,” Jess said.
All of those separate, but compounding factors led the Fierros to decide it was time to close the brewery. Its last day of operation is this Sunday, June 28. But Jess said this likely won’t be the family’s final act.
“I don’t think it’s the end all to everything, but I do think it’s a well deserved rest,” she said.
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