RENO, Nev. (AP) - Douglas Booth will never forget the summer of '88.

He was a year out of Reno High School, visiting his brother in Portland, Ore.

The first Oregon Beer Festival was being held that same weekend, and Booth's brother asked him if he would like to go.

Booth was eager. Sure it was fun, but the beer festival included an epiphany moment for the young Mr. Booth, not yet of legal age of 21 to drink alcohol.

Booth took his first few tastes of the various brews and, "I said wow, these are really good. They had so much flavor. People were making really interesting beers in small breweries. And then I thought that I would like to be part of that someday."

Booth, who first began earning a living as a wildlife biologist, now is living his dream of making beer as co-owner of Buckbean Brewing Co., Reno's only microbrewery focused on product distribution.

Together with master brewer and partner Dan Kahn, Buckbean has
established itself as a maker of quality beers since opening 14 months ago. Despite the business' infancy, the brewery's Black Noddy and Orange Blossom Ale have earned great reviews at Playboy.com, BeerAdvocate magazine and DRAFT Magazine. The Black Noddy also earned a bronze medal at the prestigious 2008 Great American Beer Festival in Denver.

Growing into a beer lovers' subculture, Buckbean's customer base swears by the brew. Buckbean's Artown Pilsner was recently named as official beer for Reno's summer Artown arts and music celebration.

"I just like the flavor," said Roger Lessman, 65, who drove down to the Buckbean brewery from Truckee to grab some kegs for his home rec room bar, where he has Buckbean's Black Noddy and the red ale Tule Duck on tap.

"I enjoy drinking beer, and obviously, I'm old enough to have had a few beers in my life," Lessman said. "There is something about the Black Noddy and Tule Duck that really appeals to my palate."

Although Buckbean has established a solid early reputation, it is only the start of building a successful company, especially in a recession, Booth said.

The brewery has yet to turn a profit after starting up the business with about $1 million invested by various family members and friends of the families, Kahn and Booth said.

Booth and Kahn want to establish Buckbean as Reno's beer, just like the Wolf Pack or Aces are Reno's sports teams.

Already, Buckbean sponsors the Battle Born Derby Demons women's
roller derby team, the University of Nevada cycling team and the Tahoe Dawgs lacrosse team. Buckbean also supports nonprofit agencies by giving them beer for free or at discounted prices for their activities.

"We are getting there, but we still have a ways to go to close the deal on that," Kahn said about being Reno's beer. "We do tastings as often as we can, whether it is at beer festivals or in stores. And every time I go out and pour samples in stores, I find people who have never had the beer before or those who have heard of it but have not tried it. And I've also encountered people who didn't know we were here and have never tasted the beer."

Prying someone away from their favorite brew to try a Buckbean product is sometimes difficult, Booth said.

"There are just so many good-quality craft beers out there now," Booth said. "You have people who love their certain beer and now, we are trying to get them to try our beer."

Buckbean saw its business and distribution take a huge jump in April when they signed with Crown Beverages Inc. of Sparks, to be the beer's distributor. Since Crown and its 10-person beer sales crew has been working with Buckbean, the beer now is distributed at about 100 more outlets in Nevada, said Paul Bond, president and CEO of Crown Beverages.

Buckbean also has plans to expand into California with its California distributor, Saccani Distributing Co. of Sacramento, all the way to San Francisco.

"It is easy to sell," Bond said. "The local support Buckbean has done, with the samplings and helping raise money for (nonprofit) organizations have been very useful selling tools."

Bond said he sees Buckbean expanding throughout region.

"With the quality of product it is and with the support of my company here, we can establish this as a mainstay product," Bond said. "We have developed quite a few brands, and this definitely fits the profile to be a true mainstay product."

Getting Buckbean into locally owned stores was easy, compared to
the complicated process of getting the beer sold at major chains, Bond and Booth said.

"We are in one Save Mart, three or four Raley's," Booth said. "Scolari's and Ben's are local companies so you can make a deal. But when you are dealing with corporate companies that are not based locally, there is a huge amount of competition to get into them.

"There is a huge competition for shelf space. I can't go in there and say, 'Hey, I've got a local beer so remove someone else and out me in there."'

Despite the challenges, the company founders say they remain committed to spreading their brews.

"Our goal is to distribute our beer to as many places as possible and support those businesses in any way we can," Booth said.