(USAToday) - Oscar Wong has been a beer man since the day he and a buddy caught the lusty aroma of a homemade brew from a janitor's Pepsi bottle back at his alma mater, Notre Dame University."We said, 'That ain't Pepsi,' " says Wong, 71, who emigrated to the U.S. from China in 1959. That day a half-century ago, Wong started making his own beer, and a lifelong passion of making a product he says "brings smiles to people's faces" poured forth. Wong's Highland Brewing is now in its 18th year in Asheville, N.C., one of many hot spots of the brewing of "craft" beer, the specialty suds heavy on flavor, experimentation and local identity.