Funky Buddha

The German-style Floridian Hefeweizen wheat ale was right up my strasse at the Funky Buddha Brewery in Oakland Park, Florida last week.  Wheat ale is usually light on the palate anyway but this one, along with the usual citrus and cloves of such craft beverages, has a touch of an intriguing banana aroma and colors of a brilliant orange-and-yellow-flecked sunset-in-a-glass.

I tasted a couple of other creations and, although intriguing (and award-winning!) the Maple Bacon Coffee Porter was way too heavy for my tender palate and I took a pass on the other, darker potables.

The Funky Buddha is so “in” right now in South Florida it can hardly draw breath.  We were there on a Monday night so it wasn’t crowded and I felt right at home although the average age of most patrons seems to be about 14.  My old gray hairs might draw resentful and/or sympathetic gazes on a weekend.  Not that I care.

The FBB doesn’t serve anything to eat in-house, which seems odd to me since beer requires some sort of trail mix (at least), but they get around this by somehow having permission for food trucks to park along the curb in front.  There was only one on Monday (Mexican…and pretty good) but I understand there can sometimes be as many as four or five trucks on any given night serving a variety of ethnic edibles.  You are free to bring your food indoors and/or take up space in designated outdoor areas.

Cool place.  Thanks for the memory!

Oh, yeah, you can also buy “growlers” of any of the tap beers on a to-go basis.  The growlers are downright handsome and properly funky and they come in two sizes, large and way-large, and make the beer itself stylishly accessible and the bottles look really good on a shelf in your refrigerator.  You have to pay a deposit but the marketing is really clever in that it gets you back into the brewery for a refill.