According to Visit Denver, the people who come will spend an estimated $7 million on food, hotel rooms and the festival itself.

Governor Hickenlooper calls Denver "ground zero for the new universe of beer making."

He says the growth of the festival has been great for the city.

The first year of the Beer festival was in 1982 when 850 people came to sample 47 beers from 24 breweries.

Twenty years later there are 4700 kinds of beers representing 578 breweries.

It is the nation's largest ticketed beer event. Tickets alone bring in $2 million.

(KUSA-TV © 2012 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)