CAPALABA brewery Bacchus Brewing Co has won a top prize at the Royal Queensland Food and Wine Show for its beer brewed using desalinated water.
The show, held at the Brisbane Showgrounds on March 13, rewarded the best of the best in beer, wine, branded beef, branded lamb, ice cream, gelato and sorbet, and cheese and dairy.
Bacchus' Belgian Mocha Stout picked up the prize for Champion Beer Utilising Desalinated Water supported by Seqwater, picking up a $10,000 education bursary.
The brewing company beat 36 other entries with their rich coffee stout balanced with chocolate.
Bacchus Brewing Co owner Ross Kenrick said the beer was poured at the brewery from a nitro tap, which created an extra creamy experience.
"The Royal Queensland Food and Wine Show Beer Awards this year ran a feature category in conjunction with SEQ Water that saw brewers go head to head to brew the best beer utilising desalinated water, with the first prize being a $10,000 education bursary for travel, training and education aimed at furthering their knowledge and to further advance the Australian beer industry," Mr Kenrick said.
"Being a very small family business we are still investing all profits back into improving the brewery, so a win like this gives us invaluable funds to improve our brewing."
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," Mr Henderson said.
Mr Kenrick said the mineral content of water had a significant effect on the end result of the beer.
"Beer styles originated around the world due to the quality of the local water," he said.
"We are fortunate here in Capalaba that our water comes from Stradbroke Island, the quality of which is very pure and not dissimilar to desalinated.
"We only had to make very small adjustments by adding back salts to the desalinated water to mimic our usual brewing water."
A total of 344 beers from 48 breweries were entered in the competition, with the judges impressed by the quality.
"Most entries came from south-east Queensland and the overall standard was high," Mr Henderson said.
"This speaks highly of the local brewing scene and shows how far it has come since the Royal Queensland Food and Wine Show last held this competition five years ago."
Bacchus Brewing Co, located on Christine Place, produces three new beers per week on average and has 20 taps pouring beer and cider.
The brewery bar is open from Wednesday to Friday.