Künstler Brewing is a German-inspired brewery that stole our heart during a recent trip to the Lone Star State. As you may know, the first thing I do when visiting a new place is research the local brewery scene, sifting through countless articles and online reviews to figure out where we’ll be spending our craft beer stipend for the week. As we entered the San Antonio city limits, Künstler Brewing was on the top of our list and it turned out to be all we read about and more. Since leaving Texas, we’ve been craving more of Künstler’s mixture of German and American traditional beers, not to mention their experimental, culinary-inspired beers. Vera Deckard, the founder and head brewer of Künstler, has an incredible story toward opening the brewery, but, most importantly, is a great person who makes even better beer.
Vera’s story doesn’t start like many other homebrewers turned brewery owner and head brewer. In fact, she wasn’t even much of a beer fan originally. Vera’s from Germany and moved to California in her 20s. Her palate hadn’t originally adjusted to beer despite being from one of the world’s beer meccas. However, on one trip home in Germany, Vera went mountain climbing. As is custom for the country, after a hard climb, it’s only right to reward yourself with a refreshing beverage. She ordered a hefeweizen, took a healthy sip and came to the realization of: “I think I like this.” How perfect that Vera’s journey to opening one of San Antonio’s hottest breweries, which weaves German influence into its beers and food, started at the bottom of a German mountain.
Vera credits her husband, Brent Deckard, for sparking her interest in the homebrew hobby. When they started dating, Brent was the homebrewer. Vera limited her involvement in homebrewing at the beginning to quality control; tasting the results, of course. My wife, Christa, is stuck at the drinking stage, but Vera’s journey after provides me with hope. One homebrew that Brent concocted was an oatmeal porter that opened Vera’s mind to the possibilities of beer. Beer didn’t need to stick to traditional styles solely; many different ingredients could be incorporated which intrigued Vera’s inner chef.
When Brent deployed to Afghanistan, Vera wanted to surprise him upon his return and bought him a homebrewing book. She started paging through the book when it arrived in the mail and came to realize that homebrewing was a lot like cooking. “It was kind of geeky and I’m kind of geeky so I just kept on reading,” as Vera so awesomely put it. She kept reading the book all night and decided to brew up a batch of beer as an additional surprise for her husband. The first batch of beer turned out horrible and proceeded straight down the drain. The second batch was a bit better, but it wasn’t until the third and fourth batch of beer that Vera determined the results to be yummy enough to keg. The homecoming gifts were ready.
Preparing that beer for Brent was all the spark Vera needed to begin her healthy passion for homebrewing. The number of brew days and new equipment continued to grow, culminating in a heart-to-heart between Vera and Brent. Brent suggested that either Vera needed to tone down the hobby or go professional. Lucky for all San Antonians, Vera chose the latter option, but their road to opening Künstler Brewing was still filled with twists and turns. The decision to open a brewery occurred in 2014, but the doors to Künstler Brewing wouldn’t open for three more years.
Vera decided to open Künstler Brewing at a property in Southtown, a neighborhood just south of downtown San Antonio. Vera had been searching for an appropriate property for quite some time and had actually viewed the property two years before ultimately buying it. After realizing that being located in downtown San Antonio was not practical, she revisited the property with Starr Center, Sr., a retired construction manager who had been helping her with the property search. Prior to revisiting the property, Vera had decided that, if Starr liked the property, she would buy. Talk about confidence in an individual. Starr arrived at the property wearing a cowboy hard hat (because what else do you wear as a construction professional in the Lone Star state?), crossed his arms and told Vera, “I could see this.” As he surveyed the property, Starr saw a location where Künstler Brewing would receive its grains, a patio where craft beer enthusiasts could enjoy their beer of choice while soaking up the sun and a taproom that could hold one of the longest bars in Texas. Vera thought, “Oh crap! I committed to buying this property if Starr said it would work.” Sometimes the unexpected turns out to be exactly what you had been looking for.
After purchasing the Southtown property and their brew system, not much money was left over. Vera and Brent hired an architect, plumber and framers, but did most of the remaining labor themselves (including insulating the ceiling of the entire 7,000 square foot property). On top of some backbreaking labor, Vera ran into a zoning issue. 302 E Lachapelle was originally zoned as heavy industrial, which meant the soon-to-be brewery would be able to serve its beers, but not its future, mouth-watering food. The brewery ran into opposition when trying to rezone the property from a motivated California transplant who went door-to-door in the neighborhood collecting signatures arguing that Künstler Brewing shouldn’t be permitted to open due to unfounded concerns that don’t apply to craft breweries. Thankfully, Künstler Brewing had way more supporters, including from the Lonestar Neighborhood Association and local artists, than detractors, and their request for rezoning was approved. Let the foodies rejoice!
Künstler Brewing opened its doors to the public on October 25, 2017. Originally and to this day, what were originally homebrew recipes have been scaled up to brewery offerings, including the highly popular Hawaiian Fog, a juicy, hazy triple dry-hopped IPA. One of the first articles about the brewery came from a reporter who, among other beers, tried the Hawaiian Fog. He told Vera that it tasted like there was pineapple in the beer. When Vera explained that no fruit was infused into the beer, and that the fruit flavor came solely from the hops used, the reporter replied that it tasted just like a fruit bomb. That reporter later wrote that sipping on the Hawaiian Fog felt like getting slapped in the face with a tiki bar. Vera loved it and cracked up when she read the article, thinking to herself that the review would be great for the brewery “because who wouldn’t want to be slapped in the face with a tiki bar?” Her thought would prove clairvoyant as years later nearly every brewery can attest that such fruit bomb IPAs make up their most profitable, revenue driving offering beers.
The brewery has evolved a lot since opening. It started with just the main taproom, which, yes, I would say has one of the longest bars in Texas, as well as a few tables. Vera didn’t want an investor or to take out a loan to renovate the brewery further, so she had the idea to start a membership program. The brewery would charge $200 to 200 people and, not just provide benefits to the members, but also treat them like investors because they’d be supporting Vera’s dream. Brent, typically the optimist, told Vera in response to this idea that nobody knew them and they weren’t going to sell 200 memberships. Vera responded, “Okay, then we’ll sell 150.” Touché. Something happened that neither of them expected; the memberships sold out within a few weeks with 300 people on the waiting list after filling the 150 memberships. Membership includes: (1) always having a seat at the Stammtisch Table no matter how busy it is (adopted from Vera’s German heritage, where the Stammtisch Table is a table for regulars in Germany); (2) a beer stein (that changes every year); (3) a secret menu (which she didn’t even tell me about!); (4) the opportunity to be a judge at the annual Künstler Brewing homebrew competition; and (5) an annual members-only dinner (with food and samples of beer provided). Künstler Brewing has used the money raised from memberships to build out their front patio and renovate the sports hall. They plan to continue reinvesting the monies raised from the membership club to make experiences at the brewery even more memorable and fun.
Vera and one of her daughters, Emma, are big foodies and, well before the brewery opened, had always been suggesting cooking recipes to one another. Emma create many of the recipes for the brewing in the beginning, including the still fan-favorite lobster and shrimp roll, as well as the apple cake. As the brewery grew in size and popularity, Vera decided to hire a professional chef, which led to bringing in Chef Andrew Lopez. Chef Andrew was the right choice for two reasons: (1) he had a passion for and knowledge of German food; and (2) his most memorable meal was a vanilla ice cream with olive oil and sea salt. Did he have some insider’s knowledge that Vera LOVES the olive oil and sea salt flavor profile? One way or another, Chef Andrew has continued to dish out a combination of classic, elevated and delicious German and American pub fair.
Vera brings her love for cooking to the brew house. Just take a gander through the brewery’s Instagram feed and you’ll see a collection of beer combinations that’ll leave you drooling just as much as their cheesy brisket sandwiches. Part of the regular beer lineup includes Chocolate Wasted (a chocolate milk stout brewed with cacao nibs from Haiti and Uganda), Currant Ties (a grisette with black currants which imparts a ruby red hue) and Schrute Farms (a hefeweizen with beets added during fermentation). One of these culinary beer creations, Chamuco, a beer infused with chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon and three types of chili peppers, walked away in 2018 with a silver in the spiced beer category from The Great American Beer Festival, the pinnacle of beer competitions in the United States. Don’t you worry yourself you traditionalists and IPA enthusiasts, there are plenty of main stay German beer styles and juicy IPAs too. That means there’s something for everyone at Künstler Brewing.
During the early part of the pandemic, it would have been easier and smarter from a financial perspective for Künstler Brewing to have suspended operations. But with 20 employees who had become family, Vera made the difficult decision to stay open and to challenge herself and Künstler’s employees to keep thinking outside the box during a time that devastated craft breweries across the country. As luck would have it, a month before COVID-19 led to nationwide closures of breweries, Vera had asked one of her managers to begin setting up an online sales system for to-go crowlers and growlers. Vera wanted consumers to be able to pay for their beer online and then pick it up at that brewery (so as to make it easier on the staff and consumers). Talk about serendipity, the day after Texas regulations allowed to-go beer sales, Künstler Brewing was up and running its e-commerce website. Nobody could figure out how Vera got her online ordering system operating so fast. It was related to realizing the power of e-commerce well before the pandemic rather than some website wizardry.
This is not to say that COVID-19 did not have a serious impact on Künstler Brewing. It did and the brewery is still seeking to get back to pre-pandemic revenue. The brewery had been seriously reliant on draft sales and only had one crowler/growler machine when the government shutdowns began. If you know how much time and labor is needed to can seven barrels of beer (each barrel containing 31 gallons of beer) with one machine (meaning one can at a time), you can understand the hustle required. Imagine if that machine breaks, which it did at one point. Does that sound ideal? No, but as the effects of COVID-19 subsides in this country, the lessons Künstler Brewing has learned will lead to strength and success in the present and future.
Künstler Brewing’s slogan is “Hecho Mit Liebe” which is a mashup between German and Spanish meaning “Made with Love”. San Antonio has felt the love from Künstler Brewing by munching on their delicious food and sipping on their equally mouth-watering, unique beers. From a city made famous by the phrase “Remember the Alamo,” I’ll always remember Künstler Brewing and can’t wait for our next visit.