San Diego’s Deft Brewing has regularly entered the Great American Beer Festival, winning a silver medal in 2021 with its Belgian table beer, Austere Abbot.
But Deft won’t enjoy a repeat triumph when the 2025 GABF results are announced in October. This year, the tiny brewery — annual production: 500 barrels — isn’t entering.
“You can’t win if you’re not in,” said Mo Nuspl, the 8-year-old brewery’s founder and brewmaster.
Mo Nuspl is the founder and brewmaster for 8-year-old Deft Brewing of San Diego. (Peter Rowe)
This is the season when brewers prepare for the GABF, the nation’s largest and most prestigious competition. San Diego County has been a player at the annual Denver affair since 1998, when local AleSmith took silver for its Belgian golden strong ale. Last year, local brewers won 10 medals in Colorado.
Victories bolster a brewery’s reputation, and GABF medals are proudly displayed in tasting rooms across the country. Yet entering this contest is not a simple decision.
There are shipping costs and entry fees: $185 per beer for breweries belonging to the Brewers Association, the contest’s sponsor, and $425 for non members.
Moreover, determining what to enter is complicated by the strict guidelines judges use to assess beers in specific categories. Take the saison, a popular Belgian-French farmhouse style. “We tweak ours to make it unique, so that it stands out,” said Peter Howson, Deft’s brewer.
But those tweaks may have pushed the beer outside the judging parameters. Personal reasons also moved Nuspl’s decision to skip this competition — his son is a high-school senior, carrying a heavy academic load while juggling college applications.
“I see us getting involved again,” Papa Nuspl said. “But we’re taking this year off.”
Ale and Farewell
When I began my newspaper career, old-timers still banged away on manual typewriters, ending each story with “-30-“
I’ve been writing this column for three decades, so it seems fitting to conclude Sept. 12’s Brewery Rowe column — and my beer-scribbling career — with -30-.
Grandchildren, travel and intriguing un-sudsy writing projects made me realize it’s time to hang up my stein. Professionally. I plan to regain my amateur status as a beer drinker.
The Next Round
Mondays: Every week, Fox Point Brewing offers a nice package: a tour of the year-old brewery, beer tastings plus a visit with brewer Brian Carl, all for $25, plus 15 percent off four-packs of beer to go. Fox Point Brewing, 200 Fox Point Farms Lane, Encinitas. Reservations at foxpointbrewing.com.
Sept. 15: You’re invited to close out 30 years of Brewery Rowe, starting 6 p.m. at Blind Lady Ale House. This party is BYOBM — Bring Your Own Beer Money – but I hope to see friends, relatives, colleagues, readers and members of the brewing trades, all of whom have made this endeavor so enjoyable. Blind Lady Ale House, 3416 Adams Ave., San Diego. blindladyalehouse.com
Sept. 27: Stone Brewing’s 29th anniversary celebration is scheduled for 4 to 8 p.m. Once the region’s most ambitious beer festival, pouring top domestic and foreign brews, I was disappointed by last year’s more modest affair. This year? The event’s website touts “amazing beers” from Stone and “our friends in the industry,” friends that, as I wrote this, are unidentified. Still, the hefty admission price of $135 has me hoping for a return to glory. Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens, 1999 Citracado Parkway, Escondido. stonebrewing.com/events
Quick Sips, SoCal Suds Edition
Celador Ales’ oat saison Field Beer. (Peter Rowe)
Beer: Field Beer
From: Celador Ales, Torrance
Alcohol by Volume (ABV): 4.6 percent
Style: Oat saison
Drink or Dump: Drink. This fizzy yellow beer bears no resemblance to Budweiser, Coors and other mainstream f.y.b.s. Field Beer is tart with a gentle honeyed background, a dash of pepper plus a hint of wood, the latter due to fermentation in neutral oak barrels.
Abnormal Beer’s Boss Pour San Diego IPA. (Peter Rowe)
Boss Pour
From: Abnormal Beer, San Diego
ABV: 7 percent
Style: San Diego IPA
Drink or Dump: Drink. Abnormal’s flagship beer, Boss Pour is a blast from our brewing past, a salute to the dank, hop-heavy India Pale Ales that put San Diego on the brewing map. Grapefruit and lemon notes? Check. Pine sap aromas? Check. A crackling, assertive body and dry finish? Check, check. This Boss can order me around any time.
Deft Brewing’s Don’t Beat a Dead Horse Dunkelweizen beer. (Peter Rowe)
Don’t Beat a Deft Horse
From: Deft Brewing, San Diego
ABV: 5.4 percent
Style: Dunkelweizen
Drink or Dump: Drink. Dark and sweet, this is a German-inspired wheat beer. You’ll catch some banana on the nose and again on the palate, although there is hides behind stronger caramel, dark bread and spice notes. Pinprick bubbles give a lift to the soft, malty body – this is a quaffable beer.