Dear Judges, Volunteers and Entrants to the 2007 Minnesota State Fair Homebrew Competition -

First, I would like to thank everyone who participated and volunteered in Minnesota State Fair Homebrew Competition. I would like to publicly thank the entire staff: Al Boyce, Bryon Adams, Janis Sines, Greg Van de Mark and Adam Stern. It would have made my job much more difficult without them. These folks are the best. I would also sincerely thank all of judges, stewards and some top-notch BOS judges: Kris England, Paul Deinhart and Horace Cunningham.
 
The Minnesota State Fair Homebrew Competition is not your run-of-the-mill homebrew competition (if any really are). Everything for the Minnesota State Fair Homebrew Competition is spread out over weeks rather days. We send in our bottles and we wait a week. We judge our entries and… we wait a week. We get the results at the Awards Ceremony at the State Fair and… we wait a week. You get the picture.  I would like to sincerely thank the all entrants and volunteers for patiently waiting for their results, scoresheets, prizes and medals. Speaking of medals….

The medals awarded in this year’s competition had "Minnesota Home Brewers Association" cast on them yet again. I talked with the Minnesota State Fair in February about the medals and I was assured that it would be taken care of. Obviously, that was not so. So, again, I apologize on behalf of the State Fair competition for this - the contest is co-sponsored by the MHBA and the Saint Paul Home Brewers Club.  The medals were designed by the State Fair, not by the contest committee, and were cast without our having seen the design.  Next month, in October, I’ll start talking to the State Fair staff about this and including other signage, so that the 2008 State Fair medals read only "2008 Minnesota State Fair Homebrew Competition."  There was no intention to leave SPHBC or any other club off, or to aggrandize the MHBA, it was just a mistake on the part of the Minnesota State Fair.

Also, the tri-panel display board that was in the State Fair display at the Creative Arts building was created by and loaned to the Fair by the Minnesota Home Brewers Association, not by the State Fair competition staff or by the State Fair.  It was there to provide information regarding homebrewing to the general public.

We appreciate the help and cooperation of all judges, volunteers and entrants, and we value help from any Minnesota brew club who wants to help with the State Fair Homebrew Competition.  We had 346 entries this year - 20% increase than last year, and with everyone's help, the contest will continue to prosper and grow.

Please foward to Minnesota clubs.

 

Here are the clubs: Boreal Brewers, Blue Ox Brewers Society, Buffalo Ridge Brewers, Brewers In Chaos, Cloudy Town Brewers, Cross River Alliance of Zymurgists, Grin and Brew It, Headwaters Homebrew Club, Jack Of All Brews, Men of our Wort, Minnesota Mashers, Minnesota Timberworts, Mobius Microbrewers, Northern Ale Stars, Northern Lagers, Northern Lights 'N Stouts, Rosemount Homebrewers Guild, Rum River Wort Hogs, South Metro Wort Mongers, St Paul Homebrewers Club, Three Rivers United Brewers, Up North Brewing Club and Yeasty Boy Homebrew Club.