The-Ave.US

JUNE 8TH, 2016 – 7:44 AM § IN THE AVE SCENE
WOODINVILLE, Wash. – For the first time in 13 years, Rainier beer is once again being brewed in Washington state. Rainier is brewing their brand new Pale Mountain Ale at the Redhook Brewery in Woodinville.[…]

Seattle’s Red Hook Suffers From Corporate Malaise

Rainier and Red Hook Beer are iconic symbols of Seattle,

When my wife and I came here. Rainier beer was awful but the big R on the brewery along I5 was great.  Even better were the the commercials featuring Mt. Rainier, with a motorcycle coming up a highway to the sound of the motorcycle engine going “Raaaaieineeeeer Beeeeer.”

Then Pabst brought the brand, closed the brewery, stopped selling the awful beer (as bad as Pabst itself).  After all, how could Rainier Beeeer compete with our local brewskies.  Red Hook arose and my wife could never get enough of ESB!

Of course, inevitably Red Hood outgrew its humble home in Ballard and moved on .. building a bigger, better industrial size brewery in Woodinville and going on to let Budweiser take Red Hook national. Meanwhile  the granddaddy of Seattle craft brews has been replaced by the Seattle beer world with 100 or 200 incredible local beers.

Now the Red Craft Brew Alliance (CBA) has laid off half the production workers at its Woodinville brewery.  Red Hook is now owned by the Portland-based DBA and also makes and sells Widmer and Kona brand beers.  CBA has a  deal to make Pabst Brewing’s new Rainier Pale Mountain Ale giving  Pabst an option to buy the brewery.

However, said CBA Chief Operating Officer Scott Mennen said that the deal is not working out.  The Woodinville Brewer  is operating at 30 percent of its capacity, “the volumes we expected through our contract brewing arrangement with Pabst have not materialized, and we were faced with the unfortunate need to reduce our production team by about half.”

Worse,  CBA is shifting primary brewing of Redhook — to its Oregon facility. Mennen said the Woodinville site “will continue to brew our contract partner beers, as well as all of our Redhook and Widmer Brothers 22-oz. brews.”