Story time

Shattered Glass Brewery is a brewpub in the design phase of opening in Beaver Dam, WI. Our lakefront property is located on Madison Street right next to the historic dam and a few steps away from the main downtown district of the city.

The name of our brewer pays homage to the “home brew days” when Dan and his brother Kyle would get together and daydream about owning a brewery as they brewed that week’s batch of home brew or worked on some project (like a kegerator build). They would always go back and forth about what the name would be and never really landing on anything they liked. That is until Dan graduated from college. After the ceremony Kyle gave Dan the perfect gift to say “congratulations brother” : a giant two liter German glass boot etched with the school name, date, major, just everything on it. It was perfect! And no, this boot was not meant for just show; to sit on a shelf, never to be used. They promptly took it down to their favorite local bar with the whole family to use and celebrate. Unfortunately, when Dan finished the last sip and placed to boot on the bar, the foot of the boot completely shattered out. It felt like a cliche from some poorly written movie. Then, when the shock of what just happened finally wore off, they looked up at each other and exchanged that glance that said, “I guess that’s what the name of the brewery would be…”

Although it seems like an “easy out”, the answer is: anything and everything that we can craft well! Dan’s brewing influence is steeped in traditional German beers and practices. But this is a vast over simplification… he is just a huge beer nerd! So, to give a more concrete answer: you can expect to see a couple crowd pleasing favorites that are staples/on all the time, but most of our taps will be rotating all of the time. We are aiming to have something on tap that anyone can call their new favorite. Juice IPAs, crisp lagers, malty ales, big barrel aged stouts, puckering sours and special “rule breaking” beers; we plan on keeping things interesting around here!

Broadly speaking, our food can be described as elevated American pub-fare. You are probably still thinking; Ok…but what does that mean? Much like our beer, we want to help you find your next favorite thing. So, while you will find some comfort classics on our menu, you will also find seasonal specials as well as creative cuisine fusions. If you want to learn more, head over to our Food page to see a concept menu.

We are building out brewery from the ground up! While this is exciting and lets us build what we want, it also means that construction timelines can be notoriously unpredictable. This of course makes an exact date hard to commit to, but we are hoping to open our doors Fall of 2026.