Ratebeer.com, an online beer forum and rating system, has ranked Funky Buddha Lounge and Brewery number 34 on the list of Best Brewers in the World for 2013.
The brewpub is the only South Florida brewery to make the list. Go, Funky Buddha!
The ranking is actually a slight drop from 2012, when Funky Buddha came
in 27th -- but hey, 34 isn't bad either, considering there are thousands of
breweries across the world. Prior to 2010, there were no Florida
breweries on the list until Cigar City Brewing Co. showed up.
Ratebeer.com was started by Bill Buchanan in 2000 and later sold to website consultant Joe Tucker in 2001. The California-based website holds more than 4.5 million ratings for almost 200,000 beers and considers itself to be the "most accurate and and most-visited source of beer information."
In comparison, the other most-popular beer rankings site, Beeradvocate.com, contains 1,568, 755 ratings of about 71,000 beers. All beers are rated by their users. Funky Buddha also made Beeradvocate's Top 250 Beers list, coming in at number 168 with their maple bacon coffee porter.
Thousands of registered members, from more than 100 countries, visit the sit daily. How objective are the ratings? Well, because of the overwhelming amount of data from the site, Scientific American writer Michael Moyer considers their ratings manipulation-proof. About 3,000 users have rated more than 100 beers each.
"Of course, reviewing 1,000 beers is easier (and cheaper) than rating the same amount of restaurants and hotel rooms," Moyer wrote.
Other than Funky Buddha and Cigar City, Peg's Cantina in Gulfport also made the list.
Granted, the Funky Buddha is a brewpub. However, with a new brewery proper opening soon in Oakland Park, its decadent brew will become more widely known once taps start showing up in pubs throughout the South Florida market.
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