Every now and then a brewery comes along that seems to have built in buzz. These are the breweries that brew beers by their own rules and to please themselves first. Funny thing is, most of the time, those same breweries tend to please the beer-loving public, too. Funky Buddha Brewery of Oakland Park, Fla. is one of those breweries that has attained cult status.
In 2010 the brewery began as The Funky Buddha Lounge and Brewery in Boca Raton, Fla. The hip lounge features 40 loose leaf teas, 40 shisha flavors, small bites, dessert and over 110 craft beers including those brewed on site. The lounge and brewery proved so popular that just three years later head brewer and founder Ryan Sentz is nearing completion on a brand new, full production facility with a monstrous 30 barrel brew house. The behemoth brewhouse makes Funky Buddha the largest production brewery in South Florida with the capacity to pump out nearly 6,000 barrels of beer in its first year and room to brew five times that much in the future.
“We’re extremely excited that this brewery will allow us to share our passion for craft beer with a larger audience,” Sentz said. “We could not have gotten here without the support of the Funky Buddha family and the entire brewing community.”
In addition to the brewery, the new facility will feature over 30 tap lines, live music, brewery tours, growlers to-go, and much more. The tap room is practically a work of art featuring a 70’ bar top lined by tall windows looking into the brewery, and a 15’ tall, live-edged cherry wood back bar built by Asheville Mantle and Slab of North Carolina.
Funky Buddha is known for its offbeat special release beer flavors such as No Crusts Peanut Butter and Jelly Brown Ale and the highly sought after Maple Bacon Coffee Porter. But the brewery is equally known foryear-round brews Hop Gun IPA and Floridian Hefeweizen. Expect to see these in bottles as the new facility settles in and adds a planned bottling line. Distribution for the brews will be handled by Brown Distribution.
The City of Oakland Park’s new Culinary Arts District, spearheaded by Redevelopment Management Associates of Delray Beach will feature the Funky Buddha as its cornerstone. The district will also feature restaurants, markets, a culinary school, and a hydroponic farm with horticultural classes. The district’s newly renovated walking plaza sits directly in front of the brewery, and will be publicly unveiled along with the Brewery’s Grand Opening and Ribbon Cutting on June 1 from 4:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.
