And the Winner Is...

Beer judges at work, L to R: Oliver Roberts, Duncan Williams, Brad Sancho, Drew Karl.

The beer has been drunk and the results have been tallied, and the winner(s) of the 5th Annual Grizzly Peak Mug Club Brew-Off are... Jeff and Susan Rankert! Their winning entry, a Baltic porter, beat out 28 other homebrews to take the top spot. They will brew a commercial batch with head brewer Duncan Williams later this summer to be served on tap at the pub.

There is a catch, however. The Baltic porter is the exact same beer the Rankerts submitted in last year's competition, achieving runner-up status. Apparently a year of aging was enough to put it over the top, but that obviously poses a problem for re-creating it on Grizzly's system to serve this year.

The judging panel was composed of Duncan, his assistant brewers, and an all-star lineup of other local brewers, including Oliver Roberts of Wolverine State Brewing, Tim Schmidt of Blue Tractor BBQ & Brewery, Brad Sancho of Original Gravity, and Mike O'Brien of everywhere and everything.

Despite living in the distant burg of Milford, Jeff and Susan are Ann Arbor Brewers Guild regulars and homebrewers extraordinaire. Year-aged or not, you'll want to check their Baltic porter out when it comes on tap — stay tuned.