On the eve of their milestone 10th anniversary party, the founders of Oakland Park’s Funky Buddha Brewery have equally big news — and big future plans.
Even as they’re preparing for 10 days of festivities ahead, brothers KC and Ryan Sentz have announced they’re officially buying back their brand from beer behemoth Constellation Brands. The purchase, for an undisclosed price, is expected to be finalized as early as mid-June, they say, ending nearly six years of ownership by the U.S. distribution company for popular beers such as Corona, Modelo and Pacifico.
“We wanted our baby back to build on it,” said KC Sentz, who described the breakup with Constellation as amicable. “We felt there was a lot more we could do with the brand, that in our hands we could be a bit more nimble and entrepreneurial. It’s easier when you’re a small business and you can make some decisions to grow.”
Constellation Brands acquired the rising regional brewery back in August 2017. Reached on Monday night, a Constellation Brands spokesperson told the South Florida Sun Sentinel that the decision to sell Funky Buddha resulted from a recent corporate decision to exit the craft-beer market entirely.
“Growth trends throughout the craft beer segment have changed significantly, and we have therefore made the strategic decision to bring our dedicated craft and specialty efforts to a close,” said Maggie Bowman, communications vice president for the beer division at Constellation Brands.
Constellation has been shedding its beer portfolio since 2019, when it unloaded Ballast Point — for which it paid $1 billion in 2015 — to Kings & Convicts Brewing Co. in Chicago. In addition to Funky Buddha, the beer company announced on Friday it is selling Dallas-based Four Corners Brewing back to its original founders.
Although buying back Funky frees up KC Sentz to experiment and control beer distribution in Florida, he said the brand is indebted to Constellation.
“We would have never gotten a Super Bowl commercial without them,” he said, referring to the 2021 Funky Buddha TV spot for its hard seltzer that aired during Super Bowl LV.
However, the sale now allows Funky Buddha to “think beyond beer,” he said. That includes installing a distillery — perhaps as soon as this year — inside Funky’s existing brewhouse, which would pump out small-batch spirits.
In January, Funky Buddha bought a liquor license and introduced seven new craft cocktails to the taproom, including a Maple Bacon Old Fashioned, that use third-party spirits. KC Sentz said liquor has added variety to Funky’s private events business in the taproom.
“There were two reasons to get a spirits license,” he said. “Ryan and I love cocktails, always have, but also our banquet business continues to grow. We did 60 weddings last year and this gives us more opportunities.”
Along with a new distillery is a planned makeover for Funky Buddha. In coming months, there will be a new canning line capable of producing 240 cans per minute, a refreshed menu for its Craft Food Counter & Kitchen and a new look for the taproom, which is filled with quotes from Roald Dahl’s “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”
“We’re going to make the Willy Wonka mural better,” KC Sentz said. “Ryan is our Willy Wonka. He has a chef’s mind creating dessert beers.”
Three of those beers will be released during Funky Buddha’s 10th anniversary party, a lineup of festivities running June 1 to 10. They include Confetti Cuddles, a birthday cake-inspired, rum barrel-aged imperial cream ale punched with almond, coconut and vanilla; Coconut Cream Pie IPA, a hazy IPA; and Bob’s Backyard, a blond ale with mango and habanero. They are scheduled to be released during a daylong taproom party on June 10.
Meanwhile, other events will include a vinyl night (June 2), a beach cleanup in Pompano Beach (June 3), a ping-pong tournament (June 4), a flight night (June 7) and a “Hot Ones”-themed hot wing-eating contest and question-and-answer session with Ryan and KC Sentz (both June 8).
Head brewer Ryan and wife Giani Sentz started Funky in 2010 out of a hookah lounge and experimental microbrewery in a quiet strip mall in Boca Raton. With burnt sienna walls and a blissed-out attitude, the Buddha burnished its reputation quickly via word of mouth from locals and nearby Florida Atlantic University students. KC Sentz and wife Melissa joined the brewery team soon after.
By 2013, its success — along with sales of its sought-after brew, the syrupy breakfast-in-a-glass Maple Bacon Coffee Porter — helped catapult Funky Buddha into its first production brewery in a 20,000-square-foot warehouse on North Dixie Highway in Oakland Park. That brewery, which debuted June 1, 2013, began serving comfort food in 2015 and doubled its square footage. Only the Sentz brothers operate the brewery today.
When he first sold Funky Buddha to Constellation in 2017, KC Sentz remembers reading social-media criticism from locals who “said the brewery sold out, that it wasn’t the same,” he recalled.
“There was never someone who came down from Constellation and said, ‘I’m going to tell you how to run the place,’ ” he said. “So reading that bothered me, because we still had the same employees.”
With Funky Buddha returning to the hands of its founders, he is curious to see how locals react now.
“I don’t regret the initial sale,” he said. “The product didn’t diminish back then, and it will only get better now.”
Funky Buddha is at 1201 NE 38th St., Oakland Park. Its 10th anniversary celebrations will take place June 1 to 10. For more information, visit FunkyBuddhaBrewery.com or call 954-440-0046.
