We are getting closer and closer to the Christmas holiday, have you finished your shopping yet? With that we have come to our Ninth Brewer of Christmas, I present to you Gordon Davignon (Gordie for short), he is the co-owner of Cadillac Straits Brewing Company in Madison Heights, Michigan.
Gordie is an engineer by trade, he spent years working in the Automotive and Semiconductor industries as an engineer. He left the industry because he was getting tired of the monotony of the corporate world and he wanted to spend his time doing something that he was very passionate about, and brewing was what he chose.
Nowadays Gordie doesn’t do a whole ton of brewing, but he still does help out on occasion in the brewhouse. His partner in the business Gary Marshall, is the head brewer at Cadillac Straits these days. Gordie does come up with some of the recipes for the brewery, but his main responsibility these days is running the Homebrew Supply Store attached to Cadillac Straits Brewing Company. Despite not being as involved in the brewing process as he once was, He has been brewing for over 10 years now. Gordie spent 6 to 8 years as a homebrewer before opening up the brewery. This knowledge of being a homebrewer is fully on display at all times when he is running the homebrew supply shop, he can help even the most novice brewer get started on setting up their first homebrew session.
Gordie does recommend homebrewing to anyone that has any sort of interest in it as a hobby. He does recommend that you homebrew before getting into it as a profession though. He states that “brew day is a long hard day, and the pay is not the greatest, but when you love what you do, maybe that won’t matter as much”. The fact that there is always something new in the craft beer world keeps his job fresh. Whether it is buying new supplies, ingredients or equipment, someone is always taking a new approach to a centuries old art form. This is the aspect of the industry that keeps the passion alive for Gordie on a day to day basis.
As far as beers that Gordie enjoys brewing himself, he likes to stick to the maltier side of the spectrum. He likes brewing English, Irish and Scottish Style Ales. He loves making a big bold Porter and Stout, he even enjoys brewing a Hazy IPA from time to time. When it comes to beers he is not a fan of brewing, the first thing that he mentioned was Sours. The reason that he doesn’t enjoy brewing Sours, he doesn’t want to introduce bacteria into the brewing facility. He recommends that if you are into brewing sours, by all means go ahead and do it, but know what you are getting yourself into before you introduce bacteria to your equipment.
Now we are going to move onto talking about Cadillac Straits and their homebrew supply shop. The brewery itself opened back in 2019, when they opened people said that they were crazy for opening a homebrew supply shop since it is a very niche market. This ended up being a very smart decision though, once the pandemic hit and people were looking for things to occupy their time, the homebrew shop at Cadillac Straits contributed directly to them being able to keep the lights on at the brewery.
The homebrew supply store has been growing every year, the success of it has even helped them expand the business. In the past couple of years they moved the homebrew supply shop to the other side of the brewery, which allowed them to add seating and capacity to the area of the business that the homebrew supply shop used to occupy. Some of the struggles that they have seen over their 5 years in business include fierce competition in the industry, staffing issues, being shut down consistently over a 2 year period, and these days craft beer being a luxury as people are trimming down their spending habits on luxury items.
When it comes to the homebrew supply shop, it occupies a space of 1,200 square feet. It is like a homebrewers version of Disneyland. They claim to have everything that anyone needs to successfully complete a homebrew and just about everything one might want. Gordie did mention that they will do special orders for anyone that is looking for something that they don’t stock in the homebrew supply store. He is always willing to help everyone, whether you have 20 years of brewing under your belt or you have never even seen a brewing setup in your life. Gordie mentions that some of the latter customers are some of his favorites, they end up being some of his most loyal because he helps them get set up and accomplish their goals of being successful homebrewers. Gordie mentions that anyone can homebrew, a lot of people think that it is overly complicated or difficult, but Gordie says, “If you can make soup, you can make beer”. His infectious attitude towards helping people is constantly on display, I believe we ended up talking longer off the record than we did on the record.
Some of the beer styles that you can expect to see on their menu include a little bit of everything. They are known for Hazy IPAs and their flagship IPA which is called Tough Eddie, a “Midwest IPA”, which is a big, bold, hoppy IPA. At Cadillac Straits they do enjoy playing around with new yeast strains and new grains to make new experimental beers. The brewery does bring back favorites on occasion based upon customer feedback and demand. Some of the beers that they are working on for the Christmas season include Santa’s Folly Christmas Ale which is a Winter Warmer. Another beer that they are working on is a Tropical Imperial Stout that has been aging in both Bourbon and Rum Barrels since March, and will see a bottle release sometime in January.
As the holidays draw closer and closer, if you are looking for some nice dark beers to drink swing by Cadillac Straits and have a few beers to celebrate Christmas. Better yet, if you are looking for Christmas gifts for the beer lover/ homebrewer in your life, stop by the homebrew shop attached to the brewery. Our Ninth Brewer of Christmas Gordon Davignon will help get you anything that you might need to make your homebrew recipe a rousing success. Estrovia!
#cheers #craftbeer #drinklocal #beer #brewery #beerlovers #holidaybeer #CheersToTheSeason #michiganbeer
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