I’m thrilled to share the first-ever guest post on my blog. My husband, Brian, is now a contributing author, and you can easily follow who is authoring the post you’re received by glancing at the name featured at the top of your email. Enjoy! -Heather

[Brian’s Preferred Post Title] A Day at the Brewseum (Shelby American Museum + Avery Brewing)

Heather’s cousins live in Boulder, Colorado, and on a trip down to visit them, we decided to stop at the Shelby American Collection. I found out about this museum through Google and it may be the best-kept secret in Boulder.

Shelby American Collection

We arrived at the nondescript brick building just as the museum was opening and were the first people inside. We were fortunate to get a tour from a gentleman named Mark who knew Carroll Shelby personally.

The museum features GT40s driven by Ken Miles and Bruce McLaren, including the car that Ken Miles drove in the Le Mans race featured in the 2019 movie Ford vs. Ferrari. As you can see in the photo below, the McLaren GT40 has the ‘bundle of snakes’ headers on display.

There are also cars such as Bob Bondurant’s 1964 World Championship Cobra roadster, which is still in race-used condition, and Carroll Shelby’s personal AC Cobra (blue car shown below).

An entire section is devoted to the GT350 and GT500 Mustangs that Shelby collaborated with Ford to produce.

We were pleased to learn that everything in the museum is authentic with no reproduction parts or cars.

It was also interested to view an exhibit that features George Lucas as part of one of the race teams as well as an area near the front of the museum dedicated to Ken Miles’ fatal crash.

We learned that the museum has purchased a building next door and will be expanding soon. This is welcome because although the museum is fairly large, there are tons of cars packed inside, making it a bit hard to see all the way around the different automobiles.

I found it very interesting overall and think Heather did as well [Editor’s Note: I did], especially the stories told by the tour guides.

Avery Brewing

After spending a couple of hours at the museum we drove to nearby Avery Brewing for some beer tasting and lunch. We enjoyed several of the beers with the Avery IPA being my favorite. The food was also quite good – the brisket nachos were a standout [Editor’s Note: The roasted beets were my favorite.].

We also took the brief self-guided brewery tour where you are able to walk a catwalk above the brewing equipment. Because it was Saturday the brewery was not operational but we got a good overview anyway.

If you’re ever in the Boulder area, I highly recommend the Shelby American Collection as well as Avery Brewing. Cheers!