While many college students enjoy drinking beer, the students at Metropolitan State University of Denver will learn how to craft careers in the brewing industry with a new facility named after the beer pioneer who founded the Great American Beer Festival.

MSU Denver Wednesday officially launched its new 1,500 square-foot facility at the School of Hospitality, 1190 Auraria Parkway, on the eve of the GABF’s opening day Thursday. The facility, full to the brim with beer brewing equipment, looks to bring real-world experience to students aiming toward careers in the brewing industry.

The new addition will bring together all brewing education and production aspects that were once spread out amongst different locations of the college.

“Students said it was the one missing piece of our program. Students said they needed to learn to brew on a commercial scale. … Here it is today,” said Annie Butler, interim chair of the Department of Hotel Management.

The laboratory is named after Charlie Papazian, a renowned brewer, author of the classic “The Complete Joy of Home Brewing” and longtime president of the Brewers Association. Oh, and he founded the biggest beer festival in America.

Papazian helped the university raise $434,000 towards the $2 million project.

“As soon as I had the tour and learned about what this institution does for people, I was so honored to say yes, let’s do it,” Papazian said. “It really fits into my life philosophy of embracing all that’s around you.”

The facility contains a three-and-a-half barrel commercial brewing system that will “enable students to design, brew and serve student-developed beers on campus once a new liquor license is secured,” according to an MSU Denver news release.

The school also plans to transition the adjoining Degree Metropolitan Food + Drink restaurant into a new on-campus brewpub, along with the help of Sage Hospitality, according to the release.

The Great American Beer Festival will draw around 40,000 beer lovers to the Colorado Convention Center for four sessions, Thursday, Friday and two Saturday. 

Those 40,000 attendees will bring in an estimated $15.4 million economic impact for Denver, according to Visit Denver.

The festival “remains the G.O.A.T.” said Ann Obenchain, vice president of marketing and communications at the Brewers Association, which puts on the festival.

“It’s the largest beer festival in the nation, and we’re seeing a lot of enthusiasm for this year,” she told The Denver Gazette.

New this year is the option for brewers to serve hard seltzer, kombucha, cider and mead.

The event also brings together more than 200 judges to sample 10,000 beers submitted to the annual competition, leading to awards of either gold, silver, or bronze for specific beers. 

A future gold-medal beer winner may start their career right in MSU’s new lab.

“It’s tangible, real-world experience named after a real legend,” Christopher Eastment, a student at the School of Hospitality, said about the new lab.

Papazian has a history of bringing up star brewing pupils himself. One of his earliest students — while teaching brewing courses in his kitchen — was Jeff Lebesch, co-founder of New Belgium Brewing Company.

The lab, sprawling through the first floor of the school, is significantly bigger than that kitchen Papazian started in. 

“Here, students will serve a student-made beer integrating our brewing operations and other hospitalities students into the daily operations and continuing to blur that line between education and industry,” MSU Denver President Janine Davidson said.

And with the ongoing success of events like the Great American Beer Festival, that hands-on education may lead to lucrative careers in Colorado’s craft brewing industry.