Sydney Brewery in Surry Hills has bested 485 entries and 71 breweries at the Royal Queensland Food and Wine Show (RQFWS) Beer Award to win as Grand Champion Beer for 2021.
As the biggest winner of the annual event, Sydney Brewery will take home a $5,000 Lion Bursary investment, allowing the business to sustain or improve their award-winning beer. The brewery may also be featured at the Kingdom of Beers event in Brisbane from 9 to 11 April 2021.
The judges especially loved the Sydney Brewery Pilsner. RQFWS Beer Advisory Group member and judge Steve Henderson said the Sydney Brewery Pilsner was an outstanding example of the style.
“Pilsner is a hoppy lager, so we look for elevated hop intensity balanced with the rest of the beer,” he said.
“Since it’s a light style of beer it’s very difficult for the brewer to hide any faults and the team at Sydney Brewery has overcome this challenge.”
Hours after the event, which was held at the Brisbane Showgrounds, Sydney Brewery proudly posted their trophies on Instagram.
“First competition of 2021 and we had our best results ever! Congratulations to our foundation Pilsner, taking out Champion Lager and Champion Beer of show! And we took out Champion Small/Medium Brewery, we are so proud about that one. Congratulations to Scott Hayward and our Brewery team. And congratulations to all the other winners, well done.”
This year’s RQFWS Beer Awards gave away 39 gold medals and the advisory group acknowledged that they had more entries compared to 2020. The group also said that the quality of submissions also improved and made it harder for the judges to pick the best of the best.