(COLORADO SPRINGS) — March 29 is Remarkable Women of Colorado Day, as proclaimed by Governor Jared Polis. Throughout the month of March, FOX21 News has been featuring the four winners of our Remarkable Women Campaign.

This week, we’re introducing you to our Remarkable Women of Southern Colorado winner, Jessica Fierro.

She’s a military wife, mass shooting survivor, and the first Latina brewery owner and head brewer in Colorado.

“My love for beer came through our military travels in Germany,” Fierro said. “That’s kind of where I learned to drink beer. I learned that there was a variety of different styles.”

In 2007, the Fierro family got stateside orders at the Mountain Post, and what better place to hone her craft than the craft beer capitol – Colorado.

“I started knocking on doors, seeing who would give me an opportunity. All I wanted to do was kind of get my feet wet, so to speak, and I started to align myself with women in the industry,” said Fierro.

FOX21 first met Fierro back in 2017 when she was brewing beer from her garage.

“Being a woman and in a male dominated industry and being a Latina on top of that, those are gaps that I saw in the industry many, many years ago that I knew I wanted to bridge if ever I opened up my own business,” Fierro said.

And did she ever – in 2018, Fierro opened Atrevida Beer Company in Colorado Springs.

“Diversity: It’s on tap. That’s our motto, because I truly believe that that’s something that we need more of here in Colorado Springs. I’m a skilled brewer. My soul goes into every single beer that I brew. But more importantly, I can use that beer as my muse, right, to create a bigger dialog and a bigger message,” said Fierro.

She’s already inspiring younger generations of women to break through those glass ceilings of the beer business.

“It’s probably the biggest compliment I could receive is having my daughter follow my footsteps,” Fierro said.

Fierro’s daughter Kassy is now a professional brewer too.

“Her passion is really incredible, and I love actually sitting there and recipe building with her because we’ll sit there and fight over a recipe and my husband’s like, ‘Oh my God, it’s just fruit’. And we’re like, ‘No, it has to be the right fruit’,” Fierro laughed.

On November 19, 2022, Fierro and her family’s lives changed forever. They were inside of Club Q when a gunman opened fire, killing five people and injuring many others.

“As a family, it’s been hard, you know, all of us going through the same things and different emotions at different paces with different triggers,” said Fierro. “So, it’s been a real big kind of learning process. I think, as far as my business is concerned, the community, it’s resilient here. It is so resilient and there’s so much love out there.”

Fierro embodies the core value of the brewery by demonstrating and defending diversity in everything she does.

“When I think of the community and I think of the bigger message, it’s not just beer for me. There’s a bigger message there. And I think that that’s what drives me,” said Fierro.

Fierro is also a proud member of the Hispanic Business Council Board. She led the Springs Annual International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day, and formed the Colorado Springs Pink Boots Society, and is the chapter leader.

On Saturday, Fierro and her daughter will head to Los Angeles for the Remarkable Women awards ceremony.