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Rainier Beer- Wild Rainiers Commercial Restored
DerekJohnson
Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 64,072 
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Thanks Taft!
A shit ton of bad beer was sold in the 70s and 80s thanks to clever promotion. Thinking about just now immediately stuck the opening lines of the Hamms beer song in my head..."from the land of sky blue waters"...
It was my chore to burn our cardboard in a barrel in the back yard. 81% of the cardboard to be burned were Schmidt half case boxes. Beautiful boxes with either deer, ducks, or fish on them, except my dad wouldn't buy the ones with fish. He said they tasted "off", so he'd splurge for Ranier if that's all the store had.
Hamm’s was so bad. Like Beer Beer bad.
Schaeffer and Schmidtys were in the next tier up. Cheap but not Hamm’s hideous.
Rainier, Oly and Lucky were the next level up. Bootlegging those were the objective.
Coors wasn’t available in Washington. And nobody in my peer group drank Bud. Maybe some Miller High Life or Schlitz Malt Liquor Bull (simply for a slightly higher alcohol content). Didn’t have access to the fancy Canadian swill.
We were all Rainier in college, if short of funds, we would go with Heidelberg (brewed by Rainier, IIRC)…
Had phases (pre-college) of Old Milwaukee tall bois, Miller bottles, and Oly…
The worst beer I ever tasted is a tie between Buckhorn and Rheinlander…
After winning a state title as an assistant, the Head Corch and I celebrated with a bottle of champagne, and a case of Schmittys, to honor our college coach, who drank a lot of them…
As teens we usually leaned on the bottom of the barrel stuff like Black Label, Maxx, Strohs, and often Schmidt. Ranier bottles were premium and only in the picture when one of us had a windfall of cash. If I was really feeling rich I'd get Miller genuine draft.
By the time I was old enough to buy beer I rarely strayed from the likes of Full Sail, Bridgeport or Red Hook.
A couple years ago I found a 6 pack of Hamms on my way to a party so I grabbed it. A friends wife saw it and asked if we having financial problems and needed help.
@Fishpo31 Rainier did brew Heidelberg - all these rot gut beers brought back many a bad memory. Also drank Rainier (might have been weaned on it), rarely Oly, Schmidt animal beers were the big sellers - take out every other letter and you have SHIT.
Lucky, Strohs, and when rolling in the money Lowenbrau was popular. Never Bud or Hamm's - not even when desperate
Edit - touring the Rainier brewery was great, the original ads painted on deer skin are beautiful
I will never forget the smell of the Rainier Brewery.
We lived 20 blocks or so north of the Olympia Brewery in the classy South Capital hood. When the wind was right the smell of hops filled the air
Thurston County/Tumwater should be embarrassed by what they let the brewery become. It used to be the gem of the area - we'd always take out of town guests on a brewery tour and they liked it.
I got married in 2011 and proudly served Olympia and Rainier amongst the many beer options at the reception.
Uh, am I the only one here that still drinks Rainier?
I bought 2x 12 packs when I was in Utah in September and a 6 pack of tall boys when I was in Seattle for the Utah game in 2023.
@digits you are not alone
They're selling half rack bottles now, which is choice. Puzzles on the bottlecaps and all.