ColdWind Brewing brings local roots and fresh flavors to Mt. Pleasant

“I believe that a brewery gets to be as unique as it wants to be, and kind of challenge what is normal,” says ColdWind Brewing co-owner Amy Shindorf. 

“So my stance at this brewery is that I’m going to represent what a born-and-raised central Michigan area resident likes for flavors, and what we find to be comfort food, and put a twist on them,” she says. “Elevate them, buy a little bit more expensive ingredients, and present it in a way that is not foreign to people, but it’s not what you’re going to get anywhere else.” 

Shindorf opened ColdWind Brewing at 2075 S. Isabella Road in Mt. Pleasant on Oct. 23 alongside co-owners Steve Swaney and Bill Scott. 

Currently, 17 of the brewery’s 24 taps serve beverages made in-house, including beer, cider, seltzer, wine, and mead. Head brewer and co-owner Steve Swaney oversees production. Swaney has brewed at several locations prior to ColdWind (including Shindorf’s other brewery in Clare, Four Leaf Brewing), following a 24-year career in biochemistry research.

ColdWind Brewing’s food menu includes sharable dishes such as Beer Garden Shrooms and Brew House Pork Belly, salads, rice and quinoa bowls, sandwiches, burgers, and more.

Their indoor taproom has bar seating and tables, with extended seating outdoors as weather allows. 

The brewery incorporates reclaimed and organic materials throughout its interior and exterior as part of its sustainability efforts.

The brewery’s bar top was constructed using windowsills from Central Michigan University’s Finch Fieldhouse. Other reclaimed materials include wood trim from Mercantile Bank locations that were being remodeled, chairs from FireKeepers Casino reupholstered with fabric from Bay City, and outdoor chairs from Walloon Lake Country Club. Window panels overlooking the brewing tanks came from Soaring Eagle’s former buffet restaurant and feature embedded native rice reeds. 

Using reclaimed materials for the building’s structure isn’t the only sustainability effort the team has focused on in their business. A large retention pond was installed to manage water runoff and prevent local drainage issues.The outdoor beer garden features 186 trees and shrubs, exceeding township minimum landscaping requirements. The brewery also donates nearly 1,000 pounds of spent grain from a single batch to a local farmer for sheep feed.

“There are brewers that would consider themselves artists. I consider myself a scientist,” says Swaney. “We strip the township water down completely. It goes through sediment filter and carbon filter, and then it goes through a reverse osmosis system. It’s completely purified of everything in the water. And every beer that I make here, I design the water profile specifically for it.”

House Elf, the brewery’s house lager, uses a Helles-style profile, with a Munich, Germany water profile. The Power Play IPA’s water profile is adjusted for bitterness and dryness, the Wildfire hazy IPA for a softer presence and aroma, and the Doppelbock for a pronounced malt character, which Swaney says is done by “mixing in the different water salts and minerals back to match those profiles.”

“24 years of biochemistry research really lays my passion for brewing,” says Swaney, sharing his background in pharmaceuticals and disease research that included positions at Pfizer and University of Michigan. 

In 2015, Swaney and his wife, Amy, moved to Mt. Pleasant after she was offered a position at Central Michigan University (CMU). The move prompted Swaney to change career paths and enroll in CMU’s fermentation program.

“My best buddy was his realtor when they moved to Mt. Pleasant,” Shindorf recalls about when she was first connected with Swaney. She notes her real estate friend shared that the Swaneys “were looking at houses based on where he could have the best at-home brew house,” recommending they should get to know each other, considering her endeavors with owning Four Leaf Brewing. 

“And then I got into a pinch where I needed to know somebody who knew something about brewing, and that’s when I reached out to Steve.”

Fast forward through a few years of Swaney working with Petoskey Brewery, Four Leaf Brewing, and Whiskey Point on Beaver Island, he and Bill Scott began looking for a brewery site in 2018. Swaney was brewing for Shindorf at Four Leaf Brewing at the time, and she wanted to start a business with him.

“When I asked Steve if he was interested in ever owning his own brewery,” she recalls, “I said I had the location picked out if he wanted to do it … A carpet and tile company that my family owned.”

Shindorf’s family was closing their business, A & G Floor Covering. While the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays in finishing existing construction contracts, Shindorf, Swaney, and Scott purchased the property in fall 2025 with support from Isabella Community Credit Union. Construction commenced in January 2026 with Konwinski Construction.  

“I am from Isabella and Clare counties,” says Shindorf. “I feel like Mt. Pleasant could support several more breweries, and so it is my business stance that the more breweries you have, the better for the breweries.”

“When you have locally made quality craft beer [with the] highest ingredients,” she says, “it’s so easy to open your doors and say, ‘Try this.’”

“Our tagline is fermenting community,” she concludes. “While I believe this is a great location—it’s in a college town, it’s near a casino, it’s near a major highway—our real focus is community. Point blank: locals.”

“I have a brewery in my community where I live in Clare. Even though I consider Mt. Pleasant the epicenter of my community, Steve Swaney wanted one in his community. And we’re a mile from his house,” she says. “Our focus is that: the community. It’s such a great community.”