Historians Ale House sits at 24 Broadway, at the top of the Baker corridor where South Broadway runs into the Golden Triangle, a 40-tap beer bar wrapped in warm brick with a rooftop that looks straight at the Rockies. Grade it from the worst seat in the house, an inside two-top under the long tap wall on a dead Tuesday afternoon, and it still earns its keep: cold Colorado beer, an honest kitchen, and a roof worth the climb.
Who will love it: beer drinkers who want range without a snob tax, and anyone who treats a sunset patio as the point. Who will not: cocktail purists and quiet-date seekers, because this is a loud, friendly room built around the tap list, not the shaker.
The room
The main floor runs long and narrow, with sky-high ceilings, exposed brick, and a bar backed by a tap line Westword describes as "a never-ending line of taps." Climb to the rooftop and the place changes character: a full second bar, two televisions, a fireplace for the cold months, and a clear sightline to the mountains. The roof is the seat to ask for, and the only one worth queuing for on a warm evening.
What to order
Stay on draft. The list runs around 40 deep and leans heavily Colorado, so treat it as a tour of the state rather than a hunt for one trophy pour. Ask the bartender what landed that week and let them steer you toward a local IPA or a saison rather than reaching for a national label. The kitchen backs the beer rather than competing with it. Tripadvisor reviewers single out the burgers, and the food list reads as long as the beer menu on both sides. Two pints and a burger land in the low-to-mid twenties, which keeps this firmly in $$ territory for a bar with a view.
Who it is for
A rooftop pint at golden hour with the mountains in frame. A long, low-key catch-up over a flight of Colorado drafts. A pre-show beer before a night down Broadway.
Best time to go
Weekday afternoons are the quiet win, when the rooftop is open and uncrowded. The bar opens at 2pm Tuesday and Wednesday, 11am Thursday and Friday, and as early as 10am on weekends, running late to 2am on Friday and Saturday nights. Get to the roof before sunset on a clear evening and the climb pays for itself. Monday is dark.
The crowd
The room pulls a Broadway mix: beer regulars early, a younger after-work and pre-show crowd as the night builds, and weekend brunchers chasing the rooftop. The vibe stays casual and unpretentious across all of it. 303 Magazine flagged the place early as a beer bar with real ambition rather than another Broadway tap house, and that reputation has held.
What regulars say
The steady praise is the tap depth and the rooftop, the two things that set Historians apart from the dive bars further south on Broadway. The recurring gripe is service that can run slow when the roof fills, so a busy Saturday evening tests patience. Both are true, and both point to the same fix: come on the off-hours and the place is at its best.
Historians earns its spot in our best craft beer bars in Denver ranking. Build a beer crawl with Great Divide Brewing, Ratio Beerworks, or Cerebral Brewing, see the full Denver bar guide, or use our craft beer near me hub.
