With draft pours of its beer hitting Bay area establishments in about two weeks (bottles will follow in the coming months), Funky Buddha Brewery celebrated with a pre-launch tap takeover at Cigar City Cider and Mead Wednesday night for Beer Week.
The brewery, headquartered in Oakland Park, showcased its offerings a few days before at the Florida Brewers Guild festival in downtown Tampa. Though this editor and her sipping compatriot finished dinner fast enough to get in on the kickoff party action early on, the line outside the venue remained throughout the evening.
The region seriously digs Funky Buddha. It wasn't long before the tasting room reached capacity.
"We've been hearing the calls to come to the area since we've opened," said co-owner and general manager KC Sentz in an email, "And we're happy to say that we can finally deliver on that."
Alongside four Cigar City Cider and Mead creations, 15 Funky beers were featured, including the Last Snow, a coconut and coffee porter that disappeared first (thanks, y'all), Key Lime Berliner Weisse and much-loved Maple Bacon Coffee Porter.
There was also the No Crusts PB&J brown ale and Randy's Old Fashioned, a bourbon-barrel-aged double brown ale, which was real tasty.
If folks want more Funky Buddha tastes, a second pre-launch gathering will take place at Anthony's Coal Fired Pizza in Brandon 5 p.m. Friday.
This article appears in Mar 12-18, 2015.