Updated March 27, 2025 at 11:20 a.m.
It took years for Jose Beteta and Tamil Maldonado to find a home for Raíces Brewing, a business they hoped would bring a new cultural perspective to a monolithically white beer industry.
The couple finally opened their venture in 2019 in a building nestled between Interstate 25 and the Denver Broncos’ stadium.
They hit the ground running, but COVID-19 shutdowns arrived just a few months later. Beteta said his business has never fully bounced back.
“Ever since the pandemic, we’ve been basically digging ourselves out of a hole,” he said.
They were behind, but Beteta said he thought his finances were in order. Then last year, the city hit him with a $34,000 bill for unpaid taxes, which he said was a surprise. Officials threatened to close the business and sell off its equipment to cover that debt, a total he worried would sink his dream for good.
Beteta stressed that there's more than just tax repayments weighing on his business. "The taxes was a small part of it. The bigger debt comes from inflation, rising costs of rent, insurance, raw materials, wages," Beteta told us.
But Raíces is resilient, he told us, and its patrons are dedicated. He’s hoping both will be apparent on Saturday, as he throws an 11-hour fundraiser to push the brewery back from the brink.
The event is called CORAZÓN, and it’s about saving the business.
It’s described as an “all-day, family-friendly fundraiser event aimed at supporting Raíces' efforts to stay in business” and will be held from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. at the brewery.
A day-long list of performers volunteered to help for free to support his mission, Beteta said. Entry will be free, but there will be lots of calls to donate to the cause — Beteta described the event as a “telethon.”
Raíces hopes to bring in $25,000 to help with the tax debt and other expenses. Beteta said he worked with the mayor’s office to get into a new repayment agreement with the city’s finance department, which is how they were able to reopen amid their financial crisis.
“We’ve never done this before, but we’re basically coming to the community and asking them to lend us a hand so we can continue,” he said.
Maldonado, Beteta’s spouse and Raíces’ chief operating officer, wrote on the event page that, “now more than ever, we need our community to show up with open hearts and unwavering support.”
Their annual Suave Fest concert and beer celebration will be held offsite for the first time, at Ruby Hill’s Levitt Pavilion in late September.
Beteta said there’s a lot more than beer at stake.
From the outset, he and Maldonado were dedicated to making Raíces a cultural hub, not just a bar. That’s what the community stands to lose if they cannot meet this moment of uncertainty, he said.
“Our business had become a very important cultural Mecca for the Latino community,” he told us. “It creates cultural pride, for people to learn more about who we are and humanize us.”
The taproom has regularly hosted public events, like the release of an “immigrant cookbook” assembled by a University of Denver assistant professor last year. Suave Fest attracted Latinx brewers from across the country and was recognized as the first event of its kind in the nation.
Closing might mean losing that representation in the local world of craft beer and in this neighborhood, Beteta said.
There are multiple, gigantic redevelopment projects planned for the brewery’s neighborhood. Beteta suspects that the anticipation of that growth has increased the cost of doing business in the area. But he also believes Raíces should thrive if it survives long enough to see those changes come to fruition.
“All of those things coming together is going to dramatically transform the area, and of course we want to have that kind of representation here,” Beteta said. “So our presence there is very important, not just for our business but for our community.”
Editor's note: This article was updated with further comment from Jose Beteta.
