In a city where the sight of the iconic 'R' on a frosty glass is as familiar as rain, a drought of a different sort has hit Seattle: Rainier Beer, beloved local pale lager, has disappeared from taps across the city. Bar owners are reeling over the shortage, with draft versions of the beverage drying up since late March. Tylor Dows, co-owner of Touchdown's Sports Bar & Grill, lamented the outage, stating that they "ran out two weeks ago," as reported by The Seattle Times.
Desperate for their favorite tipple, regulars have drained alternative solutions, such as Rainier tallboy cans, within days at venues like Al's Tavern, where Rainier previously constituted 70% of its tap sales. With manager Percy Weintraub having to hastily pivot, a spokesperson for Columbia Distributing, the largest distributor of beverages in the Pacific Northwest, Lindsi Taylor, confirmed the shortage, revealing to The Seattle Times, "We have no kegs at this time."
Not even substitutes could placate Rainier aficionados. Attempts to appease with Pabst Blue Ribbon failed miserably at Al's Tavern. For some, only Rainier will do, like the patron who took two sips of the stand-in draft and left, vowing not to return until his draft Rainier is back, as one customer described to The Seattle Times.
KING 5 interviewed Natalie Wentworth, manager at the Waterwheel Lounge, who shared the sentiment of a city bereft of its classic brew: "We are not able to have it on tap right now, which I feel is a little upsetting for our regulars."
The root cause of this shortage has not been fully disclosed. Sean McKillop, a spokesperson for Rainier's Los Angeles-based parent, Pabst Brewing, has said in an email that it is their intention to replenish supplies as soon as possible, yet without a definitive timeline, according to The Seattle Times.
