Drink at the brewpub a governor built
Colorado's first brewpub, 1988
Wynkoop occupies the J.S. Brown Mercantile Building, a five-storey red-brick warehouse thrown up in 1899 for a wholesale grocer at 18th and Wynkoop. It has brewed on site since 1988.
Why it's unique
It was Colorado's first brewpub, in a state that now has one of the densest brewing industries in the country. Everything downstream of it, including the fact that Denver is a beer city at all, starts here.
The founding story is the other half. John Hickenlooper had been laid off as a petroleum geologist when the commodities market collapsed, taught himself to write a business plan out of library books, and was rejected by thirty-two lenders before someone said yes. He opened it in a derelict warehouse district. He went on to be mayor of Denver, governor of Colorado and a US senator, and the neighbourhood around the bar became the Lower Downtown Historic District.
Before you go
The building rewards looking up. It is a genuine 1899 mercantile warehouse and the upper floors, the pressed tin and the original timber are all still there.
The pool hall upstairs is the part locals use and most visitors miss. If you want the history rather than the beer, the bar staff are used to the question and will point at the right things.