2002 Michigan State Fair Homebrew Competition Winners Circle There were 311 entries in the 2002 Michigan State Fair Homebrew Competition. Winners were announced Saturday, August 24, 2002 at Best-of-Show Judging and Awards Presentation. The 2002 Best-of-Show Winner was Chris Frey, who brewed a wonderful Belgian Strong Dark Ale. Nice going and nice beer, Crispy! (Apparently, the judges like ‘em tall, dark and malty…)

The Rex Halfpenny Award is sponsored by GW Kent and Hopunion. This award goes to the brewer with the most winning beers in the Homebrew Competition. The award is named in honor of Rex Halfpenny, a Michigan beer activist and publisher of the Michigan Beer Guide. Rex has been actively involved with Michigan beer for years and played a key role in getting Michigan House Bill 4850 passed, which officially made home brewing legal in the State of Michigan. Rex is a BJCP Honorary Master Beer Judge and is currently serving a two year term as BJCP Regional Director. He also founded the Michigan Brewers Guild and served until recently as its Executive Director. He currently serves as Director of Marketing for Rochester Mills Beer Company and Royal Oak Brewery. The 2002 Rex Halfpenny Award went once again to Rick Georgette, who had a whopping FOUR winning entries in the competition: two 1^st place, one 2^nd place, and one 3^rd place. Great job, Rick! There were two runners up for the RHA this year: Randy Panduren and Kirk Rowland both took one first, two second and one third place entries. Way to go guys! Click on the first place beer names below to see the recipe!

The Winners Circle
	5150 American Lager/Light Ale
	Place	Brewer	Beer Name	Club Name
	1	Lawrence Rapson	Classic American Pilsner	Cass River Hombrewers
	2	Bob Barrett	Cream Ale	AABG & Ford
	3	Randy Panduren	Light/Standard/ Premium
	5151 European Pale Lager
	Place	Brewer	Beer Name	Club Name
	1	Jeff Rankert	Northern German Pils	AABG
	2	Rick Georgette	Muenchner Helles
	3	Kirk Rowland	Dortmunder Export
	5152 Bitter/English Pale Ale
	Place	Brewer	Beer Name	Club Name
	1	Randy Panduren	Strong Bitter
	2	Alan Pearlstein	Strong Bitter
	3	Eric Bachman	Ordinary Bitter	CRAFT
	5153 India Pale Ale
	Place	Brewer	Beer Name	Club Name
	1	Chris Sheridan	India Pale Ale	Prime Time Brewers
	2	Richard Kirn	India Pale Ale
	3	Crian Larue	India Pale Ale
	5154 Scottish Ale/Brown Ale/Mild
	Place	Brewer	Beer Name	Club Name
	1	Kevin Dunn	Southern English Brown
	2	Fred Goeldi Jr.	Northern English Brown
	3