*This is the twenty-seventh post in an on-going chronicle dubbed the Great Wisconsin Brewery Tour. Follow the journey here.*
Fixture Brewing Company in Waukesha, WI. All photos by Joe Powell.
Fixture Brewing Company
716 Clinton St
Waukesha, WI 53186
(262) 446-0770
Visit date: 10/01/15
Quick Hits:
1) How many different beers?
6 on tap, ~12 total made
2) How long operational?
2 years
3) Why? (here, this, etc)
Homebrewer and tavern owner, felt like the next step.
4) Distribution?
Growlers, soon distributing kegs at local bars.
5) What sets you apart?
Unique concept in Waukesha, old bowling alley.
6) How did you get your name?
Owner/brewer is Steve Fix.
The main bar.
Steve Fix, owner and brewer at Fixture Brewing Company in downtown Waukesha, describes his place well: “We’re the dive pub of breweries.” This bowling-alley-turned-bar certainly lives up to that sentiment, oozing the Wisconsin neighborhood pub character we’re all familiar with and slightly comforted by.
*Unofficial tap-handle museum of Waukesha*
Fixture Brewing is a large space for a bar; once a the bowling alley, the lanes were taken out and reused for floors. There’s plenty of seating, a pool table, Foosball, and a dance floor that hearkens back to its predecessor, Main Stage. But like any good dive, the real action is found at the bar: where locals chat and Steve mans the taps, pumps in the jams, and tells you how it is in the world.
Though they try to stay with 8 of their own on tap, we got to try the 6 they had that night ($14).
Their own tappers are a funky and functional design.
Dunbar Oak Aged Sour
Sour and fruity with a hint of oak.
Belgian Red
Fruity but intense, almost like a liquor
Black IPA
Tasty, smooth and dark.
Wizard Weiss (Dunkelweisen)
Delicious, hits you with the Dunkel taste.
Sha-Shank Nitro Stout
True-to-style Stout.
Wauk-a-shame Apple Ale
More like an apple cider, but less bubbly.
While Steve is quick to note that the name of the brewery which incorporates his own surname was “not his idea,” you can hear the pride he has in the place. Fixture Brewing Company is all Steve – which is evident once you’ve talked with him over his beer, which he brews in the back of the space. That’s what Fixture is all about, as the first Squeaky-Curd-dubbed “Dive Brewery”: lively chats over livening brews.
Brewing equipment.