Tag Archives: expansion

Funky Buddha Brewery

Funky Buddha adds food to the funk

Press Release:

Funky Buddha is brewing up something special yet again – this time, in the kitchen. The brewery announces today its plans to build Craft Food Counter & Kitchen inside it’s Oakland Park tap room. This next step in Funky Buddha Brewery’s evolution will be a locally-driven kitchen, combining gourmet-caliber plates with a fast-casual “counter” method of service that will fit right in to the tap room’s communal atmosphere.

“Funky Buddha has always been known for its culinary approach to beer, and now we’ll finally have a kitchen to match,” says KC Sentz, co-owner of Funky Buddha Brewery. “The ability to incorporate quality food and beer together will just complete the tap room experience for our customers.”

Craft Food Counter & Kitchen (CFC) will be helmed by Jeff Vincent, a South Carolina native and veteran head chef who most recently brought acclaim to the fantastic Beauty & the Feast inside the Atlantic Hotel on Fort Lauderdale beach. Vincent joined the Funky Buddha family in early April to produce the menu and oversee build out plans. His eclectic style draws on his low country roots, combining European technique learned from his early days apprenticing in the Iberian Peninsula with world-class kitchen experience at resorts such as Callaway Gardens and Highland Country Club in LaGrange, Georgia.

“Funky Buddha’s unique beers are an amazing source of inspiration,” says Vincent. “Getting to create dishes that will interact with these beers has got me anxious to fire up that kitchen and get cooking.”

Vincent’s menu will combine farm-to-table ethos with upscale street food. Everything will be made in house, utilizing local ingredients as well as the beers themselves. Pickled vegetables will be made using only fresh, seasonal produce. Sauces, soups, and even Bavarian-style soft pretzels will be made in house daily. The later – a signature item at CFC – will utilize ingredients from every step in the brewing process: spent grains in the dough, real brewer’s yeast as a leavening agent, and finished beer in a variety of housemade dipping sauces including Doc Brown whole grain mustard, sriracha buttermilk dressing, and red ale cheese dip.

Traditional pub fare will all receive a twist courtesy of Vincent. The Mighty Tatanka burger will feature a blend of lean bison livened with bacon, smoked buffalo mozzarella, charred plum tomatoes, and sweet onion compote. Deviled eggs — a true Southern staple — will be set off with pancetta lardons and house-pickled okra. Sharable plates perfect for splitting over a few beers will also be a central focus. Dishes include wok-blistered shishito peppers with smoked peanuts and lime pearls, and beer-battered chicken and biscuit sliders with sawmill gravy. CFC at Funky Buddha Brewery will serve lunch, happy hour, and dinner daily.

The addition of Craft Food Counter & Kitchen will also allow the brewery to conduct beer dinners on site, pairing its brews with custom dishes turned out by Vincent. A full-service private room that seats 125 is being built concurrently and will host corporate events, receptions, and private functions with a full catering menu to match.

Construction on CFC is set to begin immediately with an estimated completion in September. This news comes as the brewery is set to host its Second Annual Anniversary Festival & Block Party on May 30th, which promises to be the largest craft beer event to date held in South Florida. For more details on the festival visit anniversary.funkybuddhabrewery.com.

ABOUT FUNKY BUDDHA BREWERY: Founded in 2010 in Boca Raton, Florida, Funky Buddha Brewery is committed to producing bold craft beers that marry culinary-inspired ingredients with time-honored technique. Its lineup includes year-round brews Floridian Hefeweizen and Hop Gun IPA, along with specialty releases such as No Crusts Peanut Butter and Jelly Brown Ale and the highly sought after Maple Bacon Coffee Porter. Its Oakland Park production brewery opened in June 2013 and distributes draught beer to retail outlets throughout Florida.

Ormond Brewing set to expand

Ormond Brewing Company of Ormond Beach has been operating for just over a year now and is set to expand the operation.

The Ormond Beach Craft Brewery has a good problem: they have been operating at capacity for the better part of 11.5 of the 12 months the brewery has been open. Now, according to an article in the Daytona Beach News Journal, the brewery will be adding “adding six new fermenters and two conditioning tanks that will expand its production capacity to 3,000 gallons a week, up from its present 270-gallon capacity. The brewery is also adding a canning machine.”

In addition, the brewery will be making the 4,000 square foot space next door to them into operational space (previously it has been used for storage).

About Ormond Brewing Company

Ormond Brewing Company is an Ormond Beach, Florida based craft brewer. Ormond Brewing Company began as a friendship between homebrewing enthusiasts. After meeting in 2011 and sampling one another’s brews and thereafter collaborating on many successful small batches of beer it was decided Ormond Beach, a city rich in history, lacked a craft beer culture. After uncountable hours of hard work in September 2013, Ormond Brewing Company became Volusia County’s first brewery.

Orchid Island Brewery is expanding

Orchid Island Brewery, Indian River’s craft brewery, is expanding after only a few months in business. After opening in late August 2014, the small brewery will be moving its tasting room and across the courtyard from their current location at 2855 Ocean Drive. The new tasting room should come online around December, according to an article in local newspaper TC Palm.

The brewery began its business focusing on the Indian River citrus industry and works to put local and indigenous ingredients in every batch of beer head brewer Alden Bing makes. Orchid Island’s mainstay is an India Pale Ale called Star Ruby, named for the fruit that made Indian River famous.

Orchid Island currently distributes to a few spots around town, but Bing says he is having trouble keeping up with demand in his own tasting room. The best place to try Orchid Island beers is the brewery tasting room which is currently open from 5-8pm on Tuesday through Thursday then from 5-10pm on Friday, Saturday offers 12-10pm hours, and Sunday and Monday the tasting room is closed. Look for new hours after the brewery expands.

Tomoka Brewery announces fifteen barrel expansion

Tomoka Brewery, Ormond Beach’s first craft brewery, will soon be expanding their operation. Tomoka owners Peter Szunyogh and Jen Hawkins will are settling on a facility outside of Ormond Beach in Port Orange to house their fifteen-barrel brewing system and new restaurant. While the current facility makes one barrel of beer at a time for their eight-tap pizza restaurant, the new facility will have twelve taps and be able to brew fifteen barrels of beer at a time.

With two new partners, Tomoka Brewery’s Port Orange location is aiming for an opening date of late January 2015 for the new facility which will also house a brewery and restaurant. During the transition and beyond, the current Tomoka Brewery location will remain open for business. The new location will be housed at 4647 S. Clyde Morris Boulevard in Port Orange.

Tomoka Brewery is not sitting idle in the meantime. Currently Hawkins and Szunyogh are brewing a nut brown ale to benefit the Halifax Humane Society.

Tampa Bay Brewing Company

Tampa Bay Brewing Company to host Bad A** Beerfest

Press Release:

On June 28, 2014, Tampa Bay Brewing Company will be hosting the Bad A** Beerfest – A Ground Breaking Event. This one of a kind, local only beerfest taking place on the future site of the Tampa Bay Brewing Company Production Brewery & Restaurant at 13937 Monroe’s Business Park Tampa, FL 33635. (Located near the intersection of Race Track Road and Hillsborough Avenue.)

The Bad A** Beerfest is a celebration of the growth and continued success of TBBC.
So far, we have 26 of 30 operating breweries in Tampa Bay committed to participate in this Ground Breaking Event. Along with all the great local beer and brewers in one place, there will be live music headlined by The Black Honkeys plus Dave & Veronica from 99.5 WQYK and Kirk McEwen of 98.7 The Fan.

TBBC is breaking ground on a second brewery restaurant in the Westchase area of Tampa Bay. In a significant leap from the existing, smaller-scale operation in a Centro Ybor suite, the new location will feature a standalone building with a restaurant, production brewery, and packaging facility. The expansion will provide TBBC with more than four times the current brewing capacity, allowing for increased package beer distribution across the state. The project is expected to create up to 60 new jobs and more than $5 million in capital investment upon completion in 2015.

All profits from the festival will be donated to The Wounded Warriors of South Florida!

Tickets are sold through the link below or TBBC webpage and are $35 in advance and $50 at the door.

3 Daughters Brewing Logo

3 Daughters Brewing expands hours, capacity, and cans

3 Daughters Brewing (3DB) of Saint Petersburg has been working hard since opening to keep Saint Petersburg, Tampa, and Sarasota flowing with their beers. This month’s 3 Daughters newsletter contains some interesting tidbits about the brewery’s plans for the future:

*Expanded tasting room hours:

You asked, we listened. After several requests to stay open later, we have extended hours in the
tasting room. New hours are:

Monday/Tuesday: 2:00 – 9:00
Wednesday/Thursday: 2:00 – 10:00
Friday: 2:00 – 12:00 (midnight)
Saturday: 12:00 (noon) – 12:00 (midnight)

*Expanded brewing capacity:

We are adding new equipment and will double our brewing capacity. We will add 2 grain silos, two 120 BBL fermenters…

*Expanded beer selection:

3DB Beers Around Town:
Beach Blonde Ale
Summer Storm Oatmeal Stout
Biminy Twist IPA
Forever Weekend Pale Ale
Black Tip Barrel Aged Porter (Seasonal)
Brown Pelican Dunkelweizen (Seasonal)

3DB Beers in Tasting Room:
Kolsch
Imperial Stout
Porter (on Nitrogen tap)
Breakfast Stout
Southern Pecan Brown Ale
Red Irish Ale
ESB
Belgian Dark Strong Ale

*Finally, a canning line:

3 Daughters Brewing is ready for cans. Our canning line will be here in August and look for cans on the shelf by September.

Funky Buddha Brewery

Funky Buddha celebrates one year with an expansion

Press Release:

It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year since Funky Buddha Brewery first opened its doors in June, 2013. With its first anniversary set for May 31, 2014, the brewery is ready to celebrate with a day-long festival of live music, the area’s best food trucks, and dozens of its own brand of culinary-influenced beers. Now, as year two looms, Funky Buddha is in the midst of a three-million dollar expansion featuring new equipment, a larger space, and bottles of its unique and innovative beer on the way this fall.

But before delving into the future, let’s take a look back at some of Funky Buddha’s accomplishments:

· South Florida’s craft brewery, now found on draft throughout Broward, Dade, Palm Beach, Monroe, and Martin counties at over 400 retail bars and restaurants

· Reached its initial brewing capacity of 5,000 barrels annually (one barrel=31 gallons) in January

· Grew to 28 employees (with 10+ new jobs planned for year two)

· Hailed as one of the top 20 breweries to visit in the country by USA Today in December, 2013

· The 2014 Rate Beer Best named Funky Buddha among the top 100 breweries in the world, while Maple Bacon Coffee Porter (the release of which drew 4000 people to the brewery in January) and Last Snow Porter named “Top 5” porters in the world

· Partnered with Fort Lauderdale-based Anthony’s Coal Fired Pizza to create “Fuhgeddaboudit Red Ale,” available on draft in each of its 23 Florida locations

As exciting as year one was for Funky Buddha, its second operating year promises to have much more in store. Namely, the brewery is undergoing an expansion that will see it become the largest craft brewery to produce and bottle its beers here in South Florida.
This comprehensive expansion began in March with three new 120 barrel tanks from Portland, Oregon-based Metalcraft Fabrication, which are being used exclusively to produce flagship beers Floridian Hefeweizen and Hop Gun IPA. Two more of these towering, 4000 gallon tanks are slated to arrive in July, increasing Funky Buddha’s annual capacity to over 16,000 barrels.

To package all of that beer, Funky Buddha will install a custom-designed bottling line from CFT in Reggio Emilia, Italy. Arriving in late July, this state-of-the-art line will have an output of 100 bottles per minute, and will allow Funky Buddha the speed and flexibility to continue to grow in its current Oakland Park location. This equipment will mean the launch of 12oz glass bottles in August, which will be distributed via Brown Distributing to on- and off-premises retailers statewide. The launch will initially include six packs of the brewery’s core line up of Floridian Hefeweizen, Hop Gun India Pale Ale, and Crusher Session IPA, as well as a line of culinary-influenced brands such as No Crusts Peanut Butter and Jelly Brown Ale and Sweet Potato Casserole released bimonthly in four packs. Limited release 22 ounce bottles will follow in November, with barrel-aged brews, berlinerweiss, and other specialty releases on the slate.

Finally, to house that equipment, Funky Buddha recently signed a lease on an additional 21,000 square feet of space adjacent to the original brewery. Aside from allowing the brewery with the operational space to grow, the new wing will also feature offices, cold storage, and the space vital for the brewery to expand to its goal of 40,000 barrels produced annually.

“We’ve already grown so much faster than my expectations, but the arrival of bottles will enable us to reach a new level of distribution here in our backyard,” says KC Sentz, Funky Buddha’s General Manager and co-owner. “Year one was unbelievable, but there’s a lot more in our future.”

To celebrate its achievements and toast to future goals, Funky Buddha will host a One-Year Anniversary Celebration on May 31 from noon to 10pm. This festival will feature all the festivities Funky Buddha fans have come to expect, including live music and painting from prominent local artists, an assortment of the area’s most creative food trucks, and of course a plethora of limited release beers including old favorites and new creations.

“We are so humbled that the community here in South Florida has embraced us so much,” says Head Brewer and co-owner Ryan Sentz. “It’s important to me that we continue to focus on quality and innovation and ultimately do right by our customers.”

More information on our upcoming package launch, including product renderings and ship dates, will arrive mid-summer. For further details on the Anniversary Festival, please visit funkybuddhabrewery.com.

ABOUT FUNKY BUDDHA BREWERY: Founded in 2010 in Boca Raton, Florida, Funky Buddha Brewery is committed to producing bold craft beers that marry culinary-inspired ingredients with time-honored technique. Its lineup includes year-round brews Floridian Hefeweizen and Hop Gun IPA, along with specialty releases such as No Crusts Peanut Butter and Jelly Brown Ale and the highly sought after Maple Bacon Coffee Porter. Its Oakland Park production brewery opened in June 2013 and distributes draft beer to over 400 restaurants and bars across South Florida.