Jim Erickson, a former homebrewer, had aspirations of a brewery and partnered with a friend, Kirk Strawn, when the two met at a local brew club. Jim’s passion was brewing and creating new varieties of older styles and Kirk was opening an event space in Phoenix. The goal was to produce just enough beer to run the taproom and supply beer to the event space. But, that soon turned into two other locations and a distribution network selling beer in over 200 locations around Arizona.
Walter Station Brewery is housed in an early 60’s era firehouse, known as Old 29 by the Phoenix Fire Department. They had to abandon the space in favor of a new and larger space that would accommodate newer firefighting vehicles. The current space was designed and developed by Jim who oversaw construction with a goal of keeping some of the old firehouse charm. Jim resisted the urging of the architect and engineers who were in favor of knocking the entire building down to build something new and more efficient. Only six of these firehouses were built in the city of Phoenix and only two remain.
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4056 E. Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85034
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