Images: Brightstar Brewing/Provided
A husband-and-wife team with no professional brewing background has been awarded South Australia’s Champion Small Brewery, after all nine of their entries won a medal.
Brightstar Brewing collected two gold, five silver, and two bronze medals at the 2026 Royal Adelaide Beer & Cider Awards this month.
Leading the medal haul were Brightstar’s Fruited Gose, a tart and lightly salted sour beer, and their crisp, hop-forward Italian Pilsner.
The result marks a significant milestone for owners Megan and Gareth Parker, who opened the Thebarton brewery just four and a half years ago.
“The award itself takes your top four beer scores and aggregates that,” Megan said.
“So the fact that we were able to demonstrate that across many beers is really exciting.”
Both Megan and Gareth come from corporate backgrounds, starting the brewery with no professional brewing experience. The inspiration to open a European taphouse came after they spent time in Europe for work and fell in love with the European brewing traditions.
Eventually, they decided to leave their corporate careers in Melbourne to relocate to Adelaide with their three young children, opening Brightstar Brewing in Thebarton in 2022.
Megan said that the brewery’s focus on European-style beers “was a natural choice,” allowing them to introduce local drinkers to new styles of beer.
“It’s pretty exciting that we get to do some different styles that a lot of people don’t come across that often in Australia,” Megan said.
One of those is their gold-winning Fruited Gose, a German beer that is traditionally tart and lightly salty. Brightstar’s Fruited Gose features peach and raspberry, with an added lemon acidity and light saltiness.
Also earning gold was the Italian Pilsner, which is fermented slightly warmer and dry hopped, making it “a clean, hoppy, session-able beer.”
“I think in Australia that style suits us with a warmer climate,” Megan said.
“We use traditional products, which really feed into the styles of beer. We don’t try to take shortcuts, and we spend a lot of time focusing on the ingredients and the techniques that we use.”
Megan said it was particularly rewarding to see the beers embraced by both customers and industry judges.
“It’s really nice that our customers come in and appreciate the beers… and the judges from a professional perspective, are giving us the same accolades.”
Brightstar’s beers are primarily available from the brewery’s own venue, however, Megan said that expanding its distribution was “the next logical step”.
“Now that we’re getting some more recognition, our brand is becoming a bit more well known, the next logical step in our growth plan is to become a bit more visible in other outlets as well,” Megan said.
Beer lovers can also find the range at Ember Pizza in the Barossa, Mensa in Kent Town and Colac Cellars in Port Adelaide.
The brewery is also preparing to celebrate International Beer Day Weekend from Friday August 7 to Sunday August 9, where it will launch several new beers.
“It’s really a big shout-out to all the brewers, producers and venues that support great beer,” she said.
See the full list of award winners here, and find out more about Brightstar Brewing here.
