Funky Buddha Brewery official hits Orlando!

It is indeed terrific news!

 

For a moment there, I thought Funky Buddha would be brewing in Orlando, and I went full mast. But yea, this is great news!

 

What beers will be distributed up this way?

 

Tap list for the Tap & Grind (from their Facebook), Looks pretty good.....

LAST SNOW
BLUEBERRY COBBLER
TRIPEL LINDY
PINA COLADA
RED VELVET
PINEAPPLE HOP GUN
SNOWED IN (Imperial Last Snow)
NO CRUSTS

Most will have a tap of the staples in regular rotation (Hop Gun, florida hefeweizen, OP, etc) but I've heard we'll get our fair share of the rare stuff as well from time to time!

 

I think in the short term they are just sending kegs to various bars in the Orlando area and for special events like "Tap Takeovers" etc. Later this summer they are supposed to be installing a bottling line. Here's some info on that (excerpt from this article: http://blogs.browardpalmbeach.com/c...o_increase_brewing_capacity_by_eight-fold.php

Five new 120-barrel tanks will be added, three of which will be used exclusively to produce Funky Buddha's flagship beers, Floridian Hefeweizen and Hop Gun IPA. Two are slated to arrive in July. The tanks are coming from Metalcraft Fabrication in Portland, Oregon.

A custom-designed bottling line will also be added. Arriving from CFT in Reggio Emilia, Italy, the machinery will be able to package beer at a rate of 100 bottles per minute. This also means that Funky Buddha will begin bottling its beer, which will be available at retailers throughout South Florida. For distribution, the brewery has signed with Brown Distributing Co.

The bottle launch will include six-packs of Floridian Hefeweizen, Hop Gun India Pale Ale, and Crusher Session IPA, and No Crusts Peanut Butter and Jelly Brown Ale and Sweet Potato Casserole will be released bimonthly in four-packs.

 

No Crusts 4 packs?!

 

Well hot damn, 4 packs of no crust is pretty damn awesome...

 

Yeah, that's what excited me as well. Will be awesome to have bottles of No Crusts in the fridge!

 

Oh no..4 packs of Sweet Potato Casserole...that pretty much reigns supreme in the beer world! (Of course, I'll be all over the No Crusts as well). Gonna be running a S. Florida trader like crazy, trying to keep me stocked!

 

Very excited to get their beers in the bottle! Too bad it's not cans, though. Are canning lines more expensive?

 

I remember reading one interview with the owners and they asked them why no cans and they had a reason but I forgot what it was. I think it had to do with the cost. Not that I'm saying canning is more expensive than bottling because I don't know that, but obviously it would be more expensive if they had to buy a canning line AND a bottling line. They are planning to do 22oz bottles of some of their beers after the initial bottling of Floridian, Hop Gun, Crusher, and the 4-packs, which according to this interview, may also include Bonita Applebum!

http://www.hypesouthflorida.com/cra...it-down-with-funky-buddha-brewerys-john-linn/

KS: When do you plan on having the Maple Bacon Coffee Porter in bottles and selling it?
JL: That’s a beer that we try to keep a little limited. We’ve brewed it twice so far and I think we’re gonna generally stick to that. We’ll either brew it twice a year or even once a year at this point. We released it in bottles in January. We had a big festival out front, about 4,000 people came out to buy bottles. We limited it to two per person, so they sold out that day. We are unsure at this point whether we’re going to continue to do that with Maple Bacon every year or once whether we’ll, once we start bottling full time, we’ll put it in a 22 oz. bottle and send it out for distribution. As of now, our plans to basically release it only at the brewery, but things can change.

KS: What about Hop Gun, Floridian, all your normal ones that you always have on draft? Do you plan on bottling those?
JL: Yes. So we have invested in a bottling line and we have also increased that space we have. The main brewery we started with was 18,000 square feet including the Tap Room, which is 3,000 square feet and we just went over another 20,000 square feet into the next bay. So we actually have a much larger space that we’re gonna start building soon. We’re gonna put our bottling line over there which we ordered. It’ll be a pretty heavy duty bottling line from Italy, which will be able to bottle around 100 bottles per minute. So it will enable us to grow until we reached a pretty large regional level. Until we fill up the brewery basically with tanks. So starting in August, we’ll have Hop Gun, Floridian, and Crusher in six packs and then we’ll be doing four packs of our limited releases like No Crusts, Bonita Applebum and things like that. And then we’ll 22 oz. bottles as well of the more limited releases things like Maple Bacon and Last Snow.

KS: Where do you guys think you’re going to distribute?
JL: We’re currently distributed by Brown Distributing throughout the state of Florida. Our foot print though is currently only from Key West to Sebastian. We have a little bit of distribution outside that area, but we’re really trying to focus down here for now. The good thing is we’re at about 400 bars and restaurants right now in just that area, and that’s part of the reason why we’re slowing growing through out the state. We don’t wanna just open it up right away and then be out of beer because the demand is quite high. So once we release bottles we’ll be releasing through Brown Distributing and they’ll go through out whatever areas we’re in. We’re looking at launching Orlando and Tampa in the near future, so it’s very likely that we will be entering those markets as well. So once we’re in bottles, yeah we fully expect to be in Total Wine, Whole Foods, ABC, Crown Liquors, and retail outlets where people can purchase beer to go.

 

I hope this is the right place to ask this. A Brandon bottle shop has reported that FB has announced expansion of their distribution to the Tampa area. Does anyone know the what and when of this? Thanks.

 

https://funkybuddhabrewery.com/get-funky-tampa-fbb-launch-west-coast-march-25

Very soon!

 

Thanks!! The bottle shop does growlers, so I guess it's screw tops until the bottles hit. Ain't it Funky now.....

 

Color me jealous. I'd give up about all my local breweries, to have access to FB brews. Hell, I'd rather just move to South Florida, and then it wouldn't be an issue!