Prepare your liver for the brewery party of the year. This coming Saturday, September 28, the Funky Buddha Lounge and Brewery in Boca Raton will host a daylong festival celebrating its third anniversary.
Starting at 4 p.m. and lasting until close at 2 a.m., the Funky Buddha Lounge will be serving an enormous number of hand-crafted ales, hosting Waffy's waffles and Caleta Peruvian Provisions, and showcasing the music of the Loopholes and Mylo Ranger. If there's a place to be this weekend, it's in downtown Boca Raton.
See also: Ten Best South Florida Craft Beers
The downtown craft beer and hookah lounge has been a mainstay of the South Florida beer scene, providing beer nerds across the area with a plethora of unique beers to try from the constantly experimenting minds of Buddha's brewing team.
"We are very excited about the anniversary this year and plan on it being even bigger than last year, which was our busiest day ever at our Boca Raton location," said Morgan Pierce, brewer at the Buddha's Boca Raton location. "This year the focus is to show our creativity and commitment to high quality beer, and to always push the limits to what has been done. We are excited to be able to expand on our ideas, continue to go through trial and error, and finally success, which is our focus here at the Lounge. Above all, we enjoy seeing people come in and enjoy beers that we think are delicious. We are happy to see the joy in our customers as they taste beers that blow them away with intense flavors and high quality ingredients."
We've got the list of beers that has been revealed, and it resembles a brewer's all-star-game lineup. (All percentages in parenthesis denote alcohol by volume values) --
- Floridian Hefeweisen (5.5%)
- Hop Gun IPA (7.2%)
- Red Dawn Red Ale (6%)
- Piiti Porter (6.5%)
- Bob's Backyard Mango Chili Wheat (5.5%)
- No Crusts PB&J Brown Ale (6%)
- Pina Colada Wheat (5.5%)
- Guava Jasmine Berliner Weisse (4.5%)
- Muy Bonita Imperial Bonita Applebum Brown Ale (8.4%)
- Sex Panther Black IPA (6.2%)
- Blueberry Cobbler (5.5%)
- Last Snow Porter (6.5%)
- Pineapple Hop Gun IPA (7.7%)
- Day Walker Ginger IPA (7.7%)
- Raspberry Berliner Weisse (4.5%)
- Don't Try Amber Ale (7.1%)
- Phil Zone ESB (6%)
- Mango Coconut Berliner (4.5%)
- Whiskey Aged Berliner Weisse (4.7%)
- Funky Buddha / TBC Brown Barleywine Collaboration (12.6%)
In addition to this solid list of amazing beers, the lounge will set up a series of timed releases (because you can't drink all of this awesome beer all at once) starting at 5 p.m. with:
- Sweet Potato Casserole (7.5%)
- Rich Uncle Pennybags Porter (6.5%)
- Stupid Sexy Flanders Sour Red (6%)
- Dread Pirate Roberts Imperial Stout (9%)
- Passionfruit Berliner (4.5%)
Then at 7 p.m.:
- Chocolate Mole Imperial Stout (9%)
- Sour Apple Brandy Berliner Weisse (4.5%)
- Maple Bacon Coffee Porter (6.5%)
- Key Lime Pie Berliner Weisse (4.5%)
Finally, at 9 p.m.:
- Old Fashioned Imperial Brown Ale (8.4%)
- Lt. Moses High-Sour Imperial Stout (9%)
- Morning Wood, Whiskey Barrel Aged Wide Awake It's Morning (9%)
- Starfruit Berliner Weisse (4.5%)
- Cigar City Brewing's Barrel Aged Hunahpu (11.5%)
Now, break out the pen and paper and make a list of all the beers you're going to want to try, or just print this out and cross them out as you go along. Some of these have been brewed specifically for the event, and all are available until the kegs kick.
A party of this magnitude wouldn't be complete without a raffle giving away all kinds of awesome swag, like Buddha work shirts, memberships, and glassware, as well as a selection of vintage beers including a 2003 Cantillon Lou Pepe Gueuze, a 9L Piraat Belgian strong ale (yes, that's around 25 bottles' worth), and even a bottle of 2005 Thomas Hardy Ale, considered a premiere example of English barleywine. Partygoers can participate in the raffles, which begin at 8:45 p.m., by purchasing raffle tickets for $4 a pop or $10 for a trio of tickets.
The Funky Buddha Lounge & Brewery is situated at 2621 N. Federal Highway in scenic Boca Raton. Call 561-368-4643, or visit thefunkybuddha.com. We'll see you there.
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