KANSAS CITY, Mo — Kansas City is the city of fountains, but it has its fair share of brews too.
Rizoma Liquid Creations is hoping to add to the landscape on the eve of Hispanic Heritage Month.
Rizoma is Kansas City's first Hispanic-owned beer company six years in the making, all from the mind of brewer and founder Damon Arredondo.
"It’s less about the beer and more about the storytelling and the excitement,” Arredondo said. “However we identify, it’s not about that. It’s about using our platform to tell other people’s stories and normalize it.”
Arredondo and his partner Edwing Mendez both identify as Hispanic.
Their first beer is a Mexican lager, but they want to reach far beyond their community’s stories.
“Everybody has their story of how they’ve come there and there is not a checklist of requirements to be those,” Arredondo said. “For us, it’s where am I on the spectrum of identifying as it?”
Arredondo grew up in a predominantly white suburb of Kansas City, and only recently connected with his Hispanic roots.
“I stood out,” he said. “But, I never really culturally had it.”
He’s hoping to bridge that gap for others through conversation while drinking Rizoma.
Each can has a QR code. It will eventually lead to individual minority stories to promote deeper understanding.
“People want to put all these people under one umbrella,” Arredondo sais. “[They] don’t realize the differences and we want to continue those conversations.”
Rizoma’s first beer, El Sol, will be on tap an available to purchase at Crane Brewing for the next month.
—
