Buckbean Brewing Company, opened in 2008, is the vision of Reno native Douglas S. Booth and Veteran brewmaster Daniel B. Kahn. These two self described “beer junkies” joined up in 2004 to create a new kind of microbrew appealing to both male and female beer drinkers.

Before becoming Buckbean’s brewmaster, Daniel was brewmaster at Buzzards Bay Brewing in Westport, Mass. and prior to that, at Riverside Brewing Company in Riverside, Calif. Because of his chefing background, Daniel brings an extra level of discernment and skill to the choosing and blending of beer ingredients and flavors.

Doug had a pint-size epiphany at the now legendary Oregon Brewers Festival, which he first attended in 1988, the festival’s debut year. Ever since then, during his extensive travels in the United States, Latin America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, Doug sought out brewpubs and microbreweries to learn more about the industry, what worked and did not and applied that knowledge to Buckbean.

Doug met Daniel through an ad Doug posted on the probrewer.com website stating that he was seeing a brewer as partner for a new brewing venture in Reno. Dan’s wife pointed the ad out to him., and after a year and a half of researching and writing a business plan, Daniel moved his family to Reno, Nevada to get Buckbean Brewing Company off the ground.

Buckbean Brewing Company cans three amazing brews, Original Orange Blossom Ale, Black Noddy Lager, and Tule Duck Red Ale. In the mid-1990s in Riverside, CA, Dan created a new stile of beer to accompany the city’s Orange Blossom Festival. Traditional beer styles have always been born from the ingredients and environment of their native region, and Daniel was the first to utilize orange blossoms to make this uniquely refreshing and fragrant beer; thus the name Original Orange Blossom Ale. Black Noddy Lager is named after a tropical sea bird; being a bird watcher, Doug found the comfortable cadence of this name a perfect fit for the black lager. Tule Duck Red Ale is named after the oldest known decoys ever found in the world. They were made about 2000 years ago from tule reeds by Native American Indians in Nevada and look like canvasbacks, which have a red head.

Buckbean takes its name from the buckbean plant, an herb that grows in the Tahoe Meadows and in mountain bogs throughout North America and Eurasia. Buckbean leaves have been traditionally used as a substitute for hops in brewing beer, as well as an herbal remedy for scurvy and stomach ailments.