Gold Coast-based Burleigh Brewing has taken out top honours today winning the 2019 Grand Champion Beer at the Royal Queensland Food & Wine Show for its Burleigh Bock.

This year’s competition saw 344 beers submitted from 48 breweries Australia-wide in packaged and draught formats across 10 categories.

A new desalinated feature category saw an additional 37 beers submitted across packaged and draught.

The best beers from eight individual categories were pooled together for the final tasting to determine the Grand Champion Beer for 2019.

James Beasley and Brennan Fielding from Burleigh Brewing

Burleigh Brewing founder and brewer Brennan Fielding said that he was honoured to have received the award.

As part of the award, Burleigh Brewing also received a $5,000 education bursary for the opportunity to develop a beer educational experience. The prize may be used for travel, training and education and is aimed at increasing industry growth and development.

Capalaba-based Bacchus Brewing Company won the 2019 Champion Beer Utilising Desalinated Water for its Belgian Mocha Stout, also picking up an education bursary this time valued at $10,000.

RQFWS Beer Advisory Group member and judge Steve Henderson said he was surprised to see four of the 14 gold medals awarded to desalinated beers.

“It’s very unusual for brewers to use desalinated water, so to have four gold medals among the desalinated entries is impressive and really says something about how important water is in brewing,” Henderson said.

The $10,000 and $5,000 bursaries are unique in Australian competitions, giving brewers access to resources to train their staff by sending them to events like Australia’s BrewCon or the Craft Brewers Conference in the US, or to undertake other skills-development activities.

Below are the 2019 Trophy winners. The full results catalogue is now available here.

2019 Trophy Award Winners
CHAMPION PALE ALE SUPPORTED BY BARRETT BURSTON MALTING HORNET IPA (DRAUGHT), Black Hops Brewing

CHAMPION HYBRID BEER OAKED XPA (DRAUGHT), Ballistic Beer Company

CHAMPION LAGER LOVEDALE LAGER (DRAUGHT), Sydney Brewery

CHAMPION INDIA PALE ALE SUPPORTED BY FDB COMMERCIAL INTERIORCODE RED (PACKAGED), Black Hops Brewing

CHAMPION EUROPEAN-STYLE ALE KRISTAL WEIZEN (DRAUGHT), White Lies Brewing Company

CHAMPION SESSION BEER BALTER CAPTAIN SENSIBLE (PACKAGED), Balter Brewing

CHAMPION STRONG BEER BURLEIGH BOCK (DRAUGHT), Burleigh Brewing Company

CHAMPION MIXED CULTURE BEER RASPBERRY SOUR (DRAUGHT), White Lies Brewing Company

CHAMPION BEER UTILISING DESALINATED WATER SUPPORTED BY SEQWATER BELGIAN MOCHA STOUT (DRAUGHT), Bacchus Brewing Company

CHAMPION QUEENSLAND BREWERY SUPPORTED BY CRYER MALT BLACK HOPS BREWING

CHAMPION BREWERY BLACK HOPS BREWING

GRAND CHAMPION BEER (Australia’s best beer)BURLEIGH BOCK (DRAUGHT), Burleigh Brewing Company