We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jennifer Perez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jennifer thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?

My parents were born in the 1920’s. My dad grew up on a farm in North Dakota, and enlisted in the Army at 17 to help Allied Forces liberate Europe toward the end of WWII, after which he returned to the states to complete an engineering degree courtesy of the GI Bill. My mom is a first generation Croatian immigrant, and her mom was the oldest of 17 children, married off very young to an older Croatian miner in southern Arizona. At a very young age my mom and her brother were relinquished to a convent, where they were raised and where she received a classical Catholic education. She won a full scholarship to the University of Arizona, thanks to the nuns, and met my father in Arizona when he was down there for engineering work in the mines, the very mines where my maternal grandfather labored.

Suffice it to say that my childhood can be best described as no-nonsense and extremely practical. I am the fourth of five daughters, and my father introduced me to people as ‘number 4′, not by my name. At the age of 7, my younger sister and I were told we’d be swimming as an extra curricular activity outside of school, which we did for more than ten years, eventually practicing twice daily six days a week; it was not optional. Other than that, our free time was spent largely outside of the house, as my mother would tell us not to come home until the street lights came on. We would go as far as we could bicycle, all over the suburban Houston neighborhood they chose to live in, and we spent lots of time at the neighborhood pool where we worked out and eventually both worked teaching swim lessons and lifeguarding every summer, starting at the age of 14.

Because I had a lot of autonomy, I learned to be very independent. Problems I encountered were always my own; my parents did not want to be bothered by our issues. Success was expected, and there were no celebrations for excellent grades or fast times in the pool. My drive and motivation was internalized; none of it came from my parents, who were less involved in my life than any of my friends’ parents, and certainly less involved than parents today (including myself!)

I believe my parents, like most, did their best, and that my (unconventional) childhood is a big part of the independent person I’ve become. I do not seek approval from others, nor status. Working hard gives me great satisfaction, and that ethic has been a constant in my life. My goals don’t revolve around retirement or sitting around spectating. Being productive, bringing people together and sharing in the effort required to build a brewery and taproom is what it’s all about for me. My childhood was not what most would consider idyllic, but I’ve taken lessons my parents imparted in me to heart: Do not complain. Chin up. No blubbering (crying) or dwelling on hardships. My parents’ hard ass approach to parenting and life has helped me through personal and work related difficulties time and time again.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Cheluna is a microbrewery and taproom. My husband, Javier, is Mexican American, and has been brewing for over 30 years. He and I met working as Outward Bound Instructors in New York City, and we’re both very adventurous people, so we complement each other. I worked as a public school teacher and put him through medical school, and we’d just pick up and move whenever we felt bored ~ his work as an ER physician and my work as a teacher and school counselor made it easy for us to find employment wherever we wandered, and so we kept picking up and moving even after we’d had two kids. We landed in Denver in 2010, and after a few years here Javier started asking about our next move, which he thought should be the Netherlands. Our kids were in middle school at that time, and they’d been in 7 different schools. The kids were happy in Denver, and I thought it best for them to stay put. We began discussions about what we sought, why we were moving all over the place, and determined we lacked a sense of community. I asked what having ‘community’ felt like, and Javier answered that he felt a strong sense of community around his home brewing, when we’d invite friends over to brew and then to drink our beer over long meals. I suggested we open a brewery, and that was the beginning of Cheluna, which is a tribute to both his Mexican heritage and super clean beer. He’s quite meticulous about sterile practice in both brewing and medical practice, and that lends itself to deliciously consistent beer production.
We work to create events and a taproom environment where people can relax and spend time alone or together decompressing. Whether creating during a Cheluna crafting event, enjoying our live music, coming to weekly trivia, Zumba, or run group, we hope that people consider our space a respite from the stressors coming their way. I sincerely hope that we’ve built a bridge connecting people from different walks of life in an unexpected way, opening peoples’ minds to what is possible and allowing them to ‘focus on the good’, our tagline.

Have you ever had to pivot?

COVID has been pivot after pivot! Lots of change after our 2020 shutdown, and props to our customers for ordering beer to go, which we delivered and had curbside pick up. Javier contracted COVID working in the ER and was hospitalized, also a long hauler under the care of a cardiologist and pulmonologist for almost a year.
We created ‘Frontliner Fridays’ to honor the many workers who don’t have the option of working from home, so every Friday we celebrate frontline workers by offering them half priced pints all day long.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

We had many investment offers, but felt strongly that we wanted autonomy, so we turned down lots of people hoping to partner with us. Brewery startup is prohibitively expensive; we had to pay for the buildout of our (rented) space and pay cash for our brewhouse system.
We leveraged 30 years of everything we’d been working and saving for to take out an SBA loan to open Cheluna at Stanley Marketplace; putting the onus on ourselves to succeed.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cheluna.com
• Instagram: chelunabrewing
• Facebook: chelunabrewing
• Yelp: chelunabrewing
• Other: TikTok: chelunabrewing

Image Credits
Matt Howshar Isaac Andrate