Where Is There?

And what's Rainier doing there?

If you Google Rainier Brewery, you'll find lots of references that include the word "icon" or "iconic". This is a good historical summary. The brewery lasted from 1884 to 1999, with several changes of ownership along the way. In 1999, the brand name was sold to Pabst and the brewery was closed. The beer is now contract-brewed for Pabst by Miller.

My beer "bible" is The Beer Guide". Its ratings of beers are derived from submittals to the ratebeer website. Each beer is given a rating on a five-star scale, accompanied by a few comments from the reviewers. Rainier gets one star, with the following comments: "Aromas of bread, corn, and a hint of citrus." "Sort of like Miller High Life but a little less sweet; a whole lot of corn." "My grandpa loves this stuff but I think he lost his taste buds in the war."

In the mid '70s, Rainier had a great series of TV commercials. You can find many of them on YouTube. This is one of my favorites. Here's another good one.

Too bad the beer wasn't as good as the commercials.