I stopped by the Funky Buddah brewpub and brewery for beer and lunch, in Oakland Park, Fort Lauderdale. It’s built in a stylish, prewar factory or warehouse with a spacious area for the long bar and seating. The brewing kit and fermenters are tucked in the back.
The building is painted in a buff yellow that enhances the mid-20th century feel. You see similar warm structures on the West Coast.
The beer styles offered, a wide range, are contemporary to the max, with flavoured beers leading the charge but choices available for traditionalists such as myself who generally eschew the flavoured, sour, and wild.
The best beer, or one I liked best rather, was Gloves Off IPA, a red IPA hopped with Amarillo, an orangey hop I favour in pale ale styles, and feisty Mosaic. These give an American stamp without the strong grapefruit taste that can be coarse unless in the hands of Allstate.
A dark ale hopped with English varieties was less successful with a biscuity edge familiar to anyone who knows craft brewing in the last 30 years, i.e., not really trad English.
Hop Gun (I had a flight) is an in-your-face west coast IPA, as the name implies.
An oats-infused pale New England IPA was good too, drier and perhaps influenced by the brut style.
A Marzen beer was letter-perfect Vienna-style, malty and the true, inimitable Mittel Europa. It’s in my genes, trust me.
No stout unflavoured was available, a real pity as flavouring the stuff traduces the character. A bourbon barrel Imperial Stout was very good for the style and nice to have as an option, but a regular Imperial stout, one of the great beers of the world, would have been appreciated.
Good pub food, burgers, pulled pork, tacos, wings, etc. completed the picture.
State of the art brewing for the most part, and good atmosphere with even a functioning rail line next door to rattle and roll ya when the beer lulls to complacency.
In the end, the Buddah is all-American, down to noting when I was paying that my bank card is “international”. Yes and no.
