Funky Buddha Brewery's history began in 2007 when owner Ryan Sentz purchased R & R Tea Bar on an unassuming stretch of strip malls on Federal Highway in Boca Raton. What began as a hookah and tea bar expanded into a loungey hangout serving up some of the finest craft beers available in South Florida at the time. As word spread, the popularity of Sentz and crew's new Boca hangout outgrew their diminutive space, and so he set his sights on a much larger space further up Federal Highway.
With that copious new space came an opportunity for Sentz to turn his long held passion for homebrewing into a professional endeavor. And so, in September 2010, Sentz and crew raised a glass and toasted to the all new Funky Buddha Lounge & Brewery. The brewpub continued the tradition of hookahs, kava, live music, comedy, and a lounge-y atmosphere, but melded it with a new and original take on craft brewing. Utilizing a 55-gallon brewhouse - barely larger than most homebrew setups - Funky Buddha's vision of culinary-style, creative beers became a reality.
The first batches were an instant hit: beers like Rum-Soaked Oak-Aged Red Ale, Orange-Creamsicle Wheat, Ginger Lemongrass, and more attracted fans of craft beer looking to try something new. Then, a few months later, Sentz created a beer that broke the mold: Maple Bacon Coffee Porter. This rich beer had it all: Smokey/salty bacon, rich and sweet maple syrup, and roast-y coffee. It was breakfast in a glass. It also tapped perfectly into the craft beer renaissance sweeping sites like BeerAdvocate.com and RateBeer.com at the time. With a small initial bottle release, Maple Bacon Coffee Porter was traded across the country and internationally, with beer lovers as far away as New York, California, and Denmark commenting on the intense flavors Funky Buddha Brewery had managed to cram into a porter. Almost overnight, Maple Bacon Coffee Porter became the number one rated porter on BeerAdvocate, while Funky Buddha was launched to the #27 brewery in the world according to commenters on RateBeer - an impressive feat for a less than one year old brewpub brewing on a 40-gallon system.
With the demand for Funky Buddha's beers skyrocketing, invites flew in from around the country to attend prestigious beer festivals such as Extreme Beer Fest in Boston and Brewvival in Charleston. Realizing that he'd never be able to meet the demand for his beer at the Lounge, Sentz got together with his brother KC - a former engineer for Motorola and salesman - and started to work on what would become Funky Buddha Brewery in Oakland Park.
Since its grand opening in June, 2013, Funky Buddha Brewery has grown to distribute its celebrated beers across South Florida. Our plans for the future are bright! We hope to continue to grow our capacity and distribute to bars, restaurants, and stores throughout the state of Florida. A packaging line will hit in fall of 2014 to produce 12oz bottles and/or cans, and further expansion includes a new line of 120-barrel fermentation tanks and a barrel-aging program.
