Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

It’s always fünf o’clock at Deft Brewing

Linda Vista area brewer finds a year-round audience for European styles

German, British, and Belgian flags hang over the bar at Deft Brewing.
German, British, and Belgian flags hang over the bar at Deft Brewing.

It’s September, and that means several of San Diego’s craft breweries have been gearing up for Oktoberfest, breaking out their German beer recipes and planning modest parties loosely modeled after Munich’s massive end of summer festival. Deft Brewing is one of them. The Linda Vista area brewery will be pouring nine different German beers for its so-called Deftoberfest weekend, the last weekend of summer.

Place

Deft Brewing

5328 Banks Street, Suite A, San Diego

That will be more German beers than usual for the brewery, but not by a lot. Deft is the rare San Diego taproom where German beers outnumber IPAs on the menu. “That’s what got me into beer,” explains Deft founder and brewer Mo Nuspl. A couple of college friends who majored in German studies introduced Nuspl to German imports, kicking off a lifelong fandom of European brews. “I’ve been drinking imports for a long time,” he says, “It was really more recently that I got into craft beer.”

Like many of San Diego’s earliest homebrewers, when Nuspl first started making his own beer, the first recipes he tried out were imported beers that weren’t always easy to get a whole of in the U.S. — at least not fresh. “I wanted to brew the things that I really liked back when I was first getting into beer,” he says matter of factly. He’s kept that up since starting his own brewery nearly two years ago, to the dismay of a few early visitors who worried over the unavailability of a hazy IPA.

But once word got out that Deft offered 12 taps devoted to German, Belgian, British, and Irish beer styles, a like-minded clientele started seeking Deft out. A list of Deft’s most popular recent beers includes a Belgian trippel, an English ordinary bitter, and a seldom seen anywhere German sticke altbier. These are hardly the types of beers generating buzz at most San Diego breweries, yet a cadre of Deft regulars swear by them.

Sponsored
Sponsored

These include German and British expats, who come to Deft seeking a fresh take on the flavor profiles they were accustomed to back home. “That’s why a lot of our beers resonate with Germans or brits who come in here,” Nuspl reckons, “There’s something to be said about brewing a beer that’s fairly true to style, but made local, fresh.”

Deft works with a variety of European malts, hops, and yeasts to better align with the traditional flavor profiles, and for Deftoberfest he’s been cold lagering a helles and a marzen for weeks in preparation. Aside from these Munich Oktoberfest favorites, he’s brewing a schwartzebier and dunkel weizen to go with German beers served near every day at his brewery: Kolsch, hefeweizen, and that sticke alt. he’s also collaborated with Miramar mead and cider makers, Lost Cause Mead and Serpentine Cider, to brew a honey kolsch and apple-weizen, respectively. Because, as he points out, as a San Diego craft brewer, he’s not beholden to reinheitsgebot, Bavaria’s famous beer purity laws.

Deftoberfest will be celebrated all day, September 21 and 22. And lest you think German beers have all the fun, Deft also organizes a Belgian Beer week in the spring, and is planning on a British Isles week for December.

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Aaron Bleiweiss: has guitar, has traveled

Seattle native takes Twists and Turns to assemble local all-stars
German, British, and Belgian flags hang over the bar at Deft Brewing.
German, British, and Belgian flags hang over the bar at Deft Brewing.

It’s September, and that means several of San Diego’s craft breweries have been gearing up for Oktoberfest, breaking out their German beer recipes and planning modest parties loosely modeled after Munich’s massive end of summer festival. Deft Brewing is one of them. The Linda Vista area brewery will be pouring nine different German beers for its so-called Deftoberfest weekend, the last weekend of summer.

Place

Deft Brewing

5328 Banks Street, Suite A, San Diego

That will be more German beers than usual for the brewery, but not by a lot. Deft is the rare San Diego taproom where German beers outnumber IPAs on the menu. “That’s what got me into beer,” explains Deft founder and brewer Mo Nuspl. A couple of college friends who majored in German studies introduced Nuspl to German imports, kicking off a lifelong fandom of European brews. “I’ve been drinking imports for a long time,” he says, “It was really more recently that I got into craft beer.”

Like many of San Diego’s earliest homebrewers, when Nuspl first started making his own beer, the first recipes he tried out were imported beers that weren’t always easy to get a whole of in the U.S. — at least not fresh. “I wanted to brew the things that I really liked back when I was first getting into beer,” he says matter of factly. He’s kept that up since starting his own brewery nearly two years ago, to the dismay of a few early visitors who worried over the unavailability of a hazy IPA.

But once word got out that Deft offered 12 taps devoted to German, Belgian, British, and Irish beer styles, a like-minded clientele started seeking Deft out. A list of Deft’s most popular recent beers includes a Belgian trippel, an English ordinary bitter, and a seldom seen anywhere German sticke altbier. These are hardly the types of beers generating buzz at most San Diego breweries, yet a cadre of Deft regulars swear by them.

Sponsored
Sponsored

These include German and British expats, who come to Deft seeking a fresh take on the flavor profiles they were accustomed to back home. “That’s why a lot of our beers resonate with Germans or brits who come in here,” Nuspl reckons, “There’s something to be said about brewing a beer that’s fairly true to style, but made local, fresh.”

Deft works with a variety of European malts, hops, and yeasts to better align with the traditional flavor profiles, and for Deftoberfest he’s been cold lagering a helles and a marzen for weeks in preparation. Aside from these Munich Oktoberfest favorites, he’s brewing a schwartzebier and dunkel weizen to go with German beers served near every day at his brewery: Kolsch, hefeweizen, and that sticke alt. he’s also collaborated with Miramar mead and cider makers, Lost Cause Mead and Serpentine Cider, to brew a honey kolsch and apple-weizen, respectively. Because, as he points out, as a San Diego craft brewer, he’s not beholden to reinheitsgebot, Bavaria’s famous beer purity laws.

Deftoberfest will be celebrated all day, September 21 and 22. And lest you think German beers have all the fun, Deft also organizes a Belgian Beer week in the spring, and is planning on a British Isles week for December.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

La Clochette brings croissants—and cassoulet—to Mission Valley

Whatever's going on with this bakery business, Civita Park residents get a decent meal
Next Article

Pedicab drivers in downtown San Diego miss the music

New rules have led to 50% drop in business
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader