Here’s what you can see (and drink) at History Colorado’s long-awaited “Beer Here!” exhibit

History Colorado Center will debut “Beer Here! Brewing the New West” on May 18 to coincide with American Craft Beer Week, museum officials announced Wednesday.

The long-awaited exhibition — teased by executive director Steve Turner as far back as 2016 — will feature artifacts, stories and perspective on the historical role of brewing in Colorado’s fortunes, from Adolph Coors’ first experiments to (relative) upstarts and current titans such as New Belgium Brewing.

The exhibit is scheduled to remain at 1200 N. Broadway through August 2020.

“Over a can of beer, we can take a peek into several important moments in Colorado’s past,” said Sam Bock, lead developer for “Beer Here!” and public historian for History Colorado, in a press statement. “But more importantly, by looking at the past through a pint, can help us understand how this wonderful place called Colorado came to be.”

To get a visceral sense of how brewing has affected the state, History Colorado will display artifacts including:

• A Denver brewer’s union card from 1888 (written in German, since that’s who was making beer at the time)
• Adolph Coors’ original hand-drawn sketch of his first beer label, on loan from the Coors archive
• A massive wooden bottle smasher used by the Denver Police Department during Prohibition
• Beer-brewing equipment from then to now
• The nation’s first recyclable aluminum beer cans, pioneered by Coors
• The flyer for the very first Great American Beer Festival in 1982
• Some of New Belgium’s original brewing equipment

Divided into five sections, the exhibit examines the role of immigrants in mining towns; Colorado’s industrial-hub status in the Rocky Mountain West; why Colorado went dry four years before national Prohibition; the role of Coors and its Ball Corp. spin-off in the state’s economy; and how outdoor recreation and brewing are such cozy bedfellows, the museum said.

Visitors will be able to see (and smell) beer-making ingredients from Coors — which should be familiar to anyone who’s taken the company’s famous, free brewery tour in Golden. However, since beer isn’t allowed inside the exhibition gallery (in order to protect rare artifacts), the museum’s café will feature a flight of four beers that represent different time periods, officials said.

While it’s subject to change, the flight will start with a porter or stout that is reflective of the colonial period, then move to a pre-prohibition style beer, a Coors Banquet beer and a craft IPA, according to an exhibit spokeswoman.

Notably, “Beer Here!” is supported by Coors Brewing Company, so you’re likely to see the company’s name and logos all over the place. But since its 1873 founding in Golden, Coors has been near-synonymous with Colorado, so that’s not much of a surprise.

“Beer Here!” has been both a bright spot on the horizon and a point of contention at the nonprofit historical society. Beer-lovers have wondered what, exactly, it’s going to look like, while critics such as Patty Limerick — who runs the Center of the American West at the University of Colorado, and who left her position as state historian this year — have wondered why a museum attended by thousands of children each year is focusing on an alcoholic beverage.

“There is something mystifying in the decision to create a major exhibit on the history of a beverage with many festive dimensions but also with unmistakable connections to human tragedy,” she wrote in a 2018 Denver Post op-ed. “Will some parts of the exhibit feature the miseries of alcoholism? Will touch-screen videos present representatives from Mothers against Drunk Driving telling their stories of loss? At the least, very careful thought will have to go into preparing the script for tour guides and docents to use as they conduct fourth-graders through this complicated dimension of Colorado’s — and humanity’s — history.”

However, History Colorado has asserted the wide-ranging impacts of beer beyond its cultural and health implications.

“Beer is a great way to understand the social and economic changes that have swept through Colorado in the last 160 years,” said Jason Hanson, chief creative officer and director of interpretation & research, in a press statement. “Some of the country’s most storied and innovative breweries are headquartered in Colorado, and we’ve always been leaders in brewing and beverage packaging innovation, including inventing the aluminum can. Today, good beer pairs nicely with the Colorado lifestyle, building a more authentic connection to community, invention, environmental stewardship and recreation here.”

The exhibit will be included in the cost of general admission, which runs $14 for adults, $12 for seniors, $10 for students (with ID), $8 for children aged 5-15; and free for children 4 and under.

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