The Rainier Brewing Company is an American owned beer brand, originally established in Seattle, Washington.

The brewery itself is a well-known fixture in the south end of town, adjacent to I-5 just north of the Spokane Street Viaduct.

The plant was home to the Tully's Coffee headquarters, Bartholomew Winery, Red Soul Motorcycle Fabrications, as well as artist lofts, band practice spaces, and a recording studio.

[6][7] During this time they opened a brewery in San Francisco where they brewed Rainier beer until 1920 when the 18th amendment was ratified.

[2] In Seattle they would maintain the Georgetown brewery as little more than a distribution center and would lease the Bay View branch out as a feed mill.

Sound man Joe Hadlock of Bear Creek Studio joined the colleagues of Heckler Bowker for 14 years of creating noise and music for these advertisements.

Some of these surrealist advertisements noted by Seattle Magazine included the Running of the MFRs (Mountain Fresh Rainiers) (a parody of Running of the Bulls featuring bottles with legs), and frogs that croaked "Rainier Beer" (a motif appropriated many years later by Budweiser).

Mickey Rooney appeared in several TV ads, most notably a parody of Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald's "Indian Love Call" from the 1936 MGM film Rose Marie.

A commercial ad featured a motorcycle that revved "Raiiiiiiiii-nieeeeeeeer-Beeeeeeeer" while zooming by along a mountain road was notable in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Other ads featured a Lawrence Welk double (played by actor Pat Harrington, Jr.) leading his band in "The Wunnerful Rainier Waltz", complete with bubble machine and soloists blowing on beer bottles; and a performance of a parody of the song "You're the Tops" while thousands of Rainier bottle caps fell like dominoes in a giant "R" frame.

For example, a couple made references to popular Saturday Night Live skits: one with a Gilda Radner lookalike in her role as Roseanne Roseanneadanna in a Weekend Update skit for Rainier Lite commercial; another had characters called the R-Heads, which was a reference to the Coneheads, with Rainier 'R' logos on the top of their heads.

Another series of commercials featured a Lee Iacocca impersonator walking through stacks of beer cans.

The third commercial was never seen, because Rainier Brewery was bought out by another brewing company which did not choose to continue the campaign [citation needed].

In 1977, the Rainier brewery was sold to G. Heileman Brewing Company, and passed through several more hands before finally winding up owned by Pabst, which closed it in 1999.

The Rainier brand was sold to General Brewing Company, which moved production to the Olympia brewery in nearby Tumwater, Washington.

[19] The original red "R" sign was sold to the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI), in which it is now on display at its new location at South Lake Union, Seattle.