diff --git a/config/config.example.yml b/config/config.example.yml
index 45b4bef..c1e9cb6 100644
--- a/config/config.example.yml
+++ b/config/config.example.yml
@@ -57,6 +57,7 @@ deployment:
     app: errbit.example.com
     db: errbit.example.com
   repository: http://github.com/errbit/errbit.git
+  branch: master
   user: deploy
   deploy_to: /var/www/apps/errbit
   # setup path to unicorn pids folder (or deploy_to/shared/pids will be used)
diff --git a/config/deploy.example.rb b/config/deploy.example.rb
index 7f9b5b0..3b8b269 100644
--- a/config/deploy.example.rb
+++ b/config/deploy.example.rb
@@ -35,8 +35,7 @@ set :copy_compression, :bz2
 
 set :scm, :git
 set :scm_verbose, true
-set(:current_branch) { `git branch`.match(/\* (\S+)\s/m)[1] || raise("Couldn't determine current branch") }
-set :branch, defer { current_branch }
+set :branch, config['branch'] || 'master'
 
 before 'deploy:assets:symlink', 'errbit:symlink_configs'
 # if unicorn is started through something like runit (the tool which restarts the process when it's stopped)
--
libgit2 0.21.2