Judd Belstock and his co-founder, Sam Alcaine, started the first chicha and pulque brewery in the US.
They built a beautiful brewery in the heart of one of the beer-y-est cities in America - Denver. The market was large, the customers curious and everywhere you looked, the future for craft beer in 2018 looked as bright as a Rocky Mountain sunrise.
And for a few years, Dos Luces did grow. They expanded their product lines, their distribution and their fanbase. But like the story of many of the breweries I interview and, really, even the ones that pretend otherwise, it wasn't enough to consistently hit profitability.
As you'll hear, specializing in unique and esoteric products brings unique and esoteric challenges with it. After years of standing tall, fighting for market share and struggling to fight off the slings and arrows of the outrageous craft beer business, Judd finally realized it all just wasn't worth it.
Here is the story of the rise and unfortunate fall of Denver's Dos Luces Brewery.
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