Ladies at the Beach: Funky Buddha Brewery

A couple of weeks ago, my boyfriend and I took a short weekend trip down to Fort Lauderdale to escape the cold and snow of Chicago.  The last two days of our trip were glorious: sunny, 80, perfect beach weather.  Sadly the first full day was full of rain.  I tried to make the best of things by looking for some indoor activities and found Funky Buddha Brewery.  After a delicious brunch at Lester's Diner, we drove over to Funky Buddha to try some of their beers.

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The taproom is very large compared to some of the smaller ones in Chicago, which was a nice change of pace.  Dave and I sat at the bar and chatted up the cast of characters that made up the bartenders.  We decided we would try all of their 8 "special" beers by ordering 2 flights (4 each), and then we ordered 1 more flight to split in order to try their "standard" beers.

The flight holder is in the shape of a Buddha, and the oyster crackers were a nice touch!

Since we had arrived early in the afternoon, there wasn't much happening in the taproom, so the bartender was able to talk to us more about the beer.  He told us that he pretty much exclusively drinks Funky Buddha's Small Axe, a 10% double IPA.  It sounded like only drinking that strong beer may have messed up his palette as he told us he couldn't taste some of the flavors in their other beers like ginger, lemongrass, blood orange, raspberry, habanero, just to name a few.  He said Small Axe was the best beer in the land, and when I asked him if he had tried Bell's Hopslam he said it was "garbage compared to Small Axe".  While I don't agree with him about that, Small Axe was a pretty good double IPA, although it wasn't as smooth as others I've had.

My favorites out of the beers we tried were a pineapple IPA (Pineapple Hop Gun) and a blood orange American IPA (More Moro).  They were both fruity without overpowering the taste of the hops.

Unfortunately it looks like Funky Buddha is only available in Florida at the moment, but if you're ever visiting, definitely look out for it on tap!