The party’s at Funky Buddha Brewery, y’all.
Many Fort Lauderdale-area restaurants and bars have already tapped out in the wake of Thursday’s water main break, but water (and beers) will still be flowing at the Oakland Park brewery.
South Florida’s largest brewery and taproom at 1201 NE 38th St. will re-open at 4 p.m. Thursday with cold beer, drinkable water and working bathrooms thanks to brewers’ last-minute crafty engineering, says John Linn, the brewery’s marketing manager.
Around 1 p.m. Thursday, beermakers at the 40,000-square-foot brewery connected its two reserve water tanks, which hold about 3,000 gallons apiece, to the water main, Linn says. That means fresh water will be available “for the foreseeable future,” he says.
The brewery also plans to fill up to one gallon of water per visitor for those who bring a sealable container, he says.
“We managed to hook it back up within the last hour, so we’re excited,” Linn says. “The big thing is we have a responsibility to the community that helped build us to try to remain open.”
Because of limited water reserves, Linn says the Buddha won’t brew any fresh beer, a water-intensive process, until service is restored.
“We’re expecting lots of people tonight, people who need a restroom or need a cold beer to escape this for awhile,” Linn says. “This is a pretty crazy thing that happened.”
The brewery’s in-house restaurant, Craft Food Counter and Kitchen, which slings pub-grub fare such as hamburgers, pretzels and salads, will remain open Thursday. There also will be free popcorn and a 7 p.m. screening of the craft-beer documentary “Beers of Joy,” he says.
Still, without fresh water, how long can the brewery last on its reserve supply?
“We’ve been asking that same question ourselves,” Linn says with a laugh. “We can’t produce beer without water. I hope it lasts until we’re back up and running.”
For more information, call the brewery at 954-440-0046 or go to FunkyBuddhaBrewery.com.
