In 1932 the plant underwent extensive improvements and additions in preparations for Repeal, and by early 1933 the brewery's capacity was 350,000 barrels per year. The company was still under the leadership of Louis Hemrich who, with partner Joseph Goldie, had purchased a 92% of the stock in the Rainier Brewing Co. (WA) from Seattle Brewing & Malting (SB&M) in 1925. In Sept. of that year the partners merged Seattle Brewing & Malting Co. with the Rainier Brewing Co. in forming Pacific Products, Inc. In July of the following year (1926), Pacific Products purchased all of the properties held by SB&M for $1,000,000.

In 1927, Pacific Products also purchased the Tacoma Brewing Co. from its Tacoma, WA owners, the Pacific Brewing & Malting (PB&M).  Like Rainier, PB&M had moved to SF when Washington's state-wide Prohibition shut them down in January 1916.

From the 1927 purchase of PB&M's SF holdings, Rainier owned the Tacoma Brewery on Treat Ave. In July of 1933, three months after Repeal, Rainier sold the brewery to Regal Products, which established the Regal-Amber Brewing Company of San Francisco.

In Nov. 1932, Pacific Products reorganized as Rainier Brewing Co., Inc. - a California company. Since they had maintained production of near-beer during Prohibition, they were prepared to offer 3.2% beer immediately upon Repeal. On April 7, 1933, Rainier was again selling real beer under Calif. U-Permit 1101.

To celebrate the return of its flagship brand, the company reprised its pre-prohibition Rainier Beer label (below left). The same label was also used for the Seattle market, but rather than "Rainier Brewing Company, Inc." it reads: "Rainier Distributing Company, Seattle Washington." This beer was shipped to the old Georgetown plant, which now served as the brewery's Washington & Alaska distribution center. They also resurrected the pre-prohibition Rainier Pale label (below lower left) but the graphics were soon updated.

In Sep. '33, they introduced Rainier Dark - a Culmbacher-type dark beer (below right). The ad (above)  introduces these two early products.

In April of '35, Rainier introduced it's "Special Export - a natural malt beer" (below left) with the slogan: "A lift without a letdown." Special Export remained a primary brand into the '50s. A couple of other products were early brands, one named after the president, and chairman of the Board, Louis Hemrich (below right).

Two other budget brands were early products, Piedmont Pale Lager Beer (above left), and Pale Lifestaff Beer (above right). Lifestaff was a brand used by Louis and brother, Alvin's Hemrich Staff Products Co. during Prohibition. Alvin chose Hemrich's Select as the flagship brand of his Hemrich Brewing Co. and dropped Lifestaff but received a partial royalty for its use by the SF brewery.

To further utilize the plant's capacity, the company contracted with wholesalers and grocers to produce private label brands. These beers included Full Value, Gold Medal, Ace Hi, Tornberg's Old German Lager, Old Vienna, Old Mission Steam Beer, Brown Derby, Leideg's De Luxe, Lisco Lager, Piedmont Pale, Schwartz & Weiss, Krug, BB Special Export, Shorty Roberts' Tally Ho, and Pilsen Brau.

In October of '34, the company introduced its English Type, Old Stock Ale (left). It was advertised as Rainier Beer's "Big Brother" containing 6% alcohol. About this time they adopted the tag line: "In the West it's Rainier Beer" (or Ale).

With the introduction of the Stubby bottle in Dec. of 1935, brewers were quick to adopt this more versitile package. In Dec. of '36, Rainier traded the long neck for the Stubby, reintroducing their Special Export in the package they called a "Little Giant." They dropped the Little Giant version in mid-1942.

In February of 1936, Special Export was available both in bottle, and in the new Low-profile, cone top cans. It was soon followed by Old Stock Ale - also in the Continental Can Company's "Cap-Sealed" beer can.
 

By May of '36, Rainier Dark had been dropped from the line-up and replaced with their Extra Export Stout.

This was originally a low alcohol product that was introduced in 1928. This label is identical to the earlier version with the exception of the "alcoholic content less than ½ of 1% by volume" statement on the original.

Hemrich had tried this full strength product in 1923, in Kamloops, B.C., but it didn't take off. This later attempt failed as well. It would seem that a stout, like the famous Guinness Stout, wouldn't gain acceptance until the early 1980s when craft breweries would appear on the scene.

In Sept. of '37, the company test marketed a new brand in the San Francisco Bay Area called Rainier Club Pale Lager. The brand was well received, and in the summer of '38, Rainier Club was launched with a new label (right) - which would remain a flagship brand until Feb. of '49.

One of ten 1937 GMC Streamlines produced for Rainier

 

 

The Rainier Brewing Company (1938-1953)

December 1, 1937, the company did a reorganization raising their capital from $1.5M to $2.5M and dropping "Inc." from their masthead.

The line-up of brands stayed constant until early December of 1940, when Half & Half was introduced. It was offered in a 22 oz. bottle, and a new 8oz. size that came in a slope shouldered bottle. Half & Half was described in the 9 December press release as a blend of ale and porter, and that...

"Rainier Half and Half is the result of eighteen months of experiments on the part of Rainier's scientific staff to develop a half and half blend which would exactly meet the western taste."

Perhaps they didn't get it exactly right, since Rainier Half & Half was gone by August of 1942.

In Oct. '39, the slogan "Rainier - For Good Cheer" was introduced, and continued in use until early '46. In Sept. of 1940, the company made another major change when they streamlined the iconic Rainier logo. Compare the logo in the 1941 Bock label (below) with the Half & Half label above (right). You'll notice that "Rainier" is now horizontal, the font is thinner, and the curve has been removed from the tail.

The waiter character in the early 1941 ad was a popular figure and Rainier had him made into a back-bar, point-of-sale, chalk figurine. He came in 8" and 13½" sizes. See Breweriana (below). Also shown below is a poster from the early '40s, of a young female tennis player and the slogan: "Relax with Rainier".

Rainier was still brewing Bock beer every Spring and this label (right), ca.1941, displays the modified Rainier logo.

The war years were tough on all the California brewers, given the shortages in materials, but Rainier better than most. In '42, they made a move to increase their market share in southern California. The July 22nd issue of the San Francisco Chronicle ran the following story:  

"Rainier Brewing Company of San Francisco, one of the oldest and largest brewing organizations on the Pacific coast, has purchased the entire plant of the Vernon Brewing Company of Los Angeles, it was announced yesterday.

Acquisition of the Vernon plant is the initial move by Rainier in its plans to increase distribution in Southern California, Joseph Goldie, president, states. The Vernon brewery is less than 10 years old and is equipped with the most modern brewery equipment obtainable.

The plant occupies approximately an acre of ground and in addition Rainier has acquired an acre of vacant land adjoining, which it plans to use in enlarging the capacity of the brewery as soon as materials and equipment become available.

Rainier has already begun brewing in the Vernon plant, but no deliveries of beer will be made from the new plant for some time."

The statement of "...enlarging of the capacity of the brewery as soon as materials and equipment become available" refers to the war time shortages of essential materials. However, by the time materials and equipment did become available, Rainier was struggling and no expansion of the plant occurred.

 illustration for an Aug. 1942 ad

This artist's rendition makes the new brewery look rather grand, but the newspaper photo (below) shows that it was a fairly small plant.

Does anyone have a good photo of the Rainier plant?
 

Rainier Club Extra Dry, ca.1947

The post war era was not as good for Rainier as for some of their competitors, and they began losing market share. In early 1947 they brought on a new brewmaster, Nicholas Vacano. That May he re-formulated their mainstay, Rainier Club Extra Pale Beer and called it Extra Dry. He claimed that they "Fermented out the solids" which was marketing speak for - "here's a beer made by replacing expensive malt with cheaper adjuncts." The canned Rainier Club Extra Dry Beer is show here (at left). Apparently the public was not impressed with "Dry" beer, and by late '48 the product was dropped and Extra Pale was back. Also axed was the company's brewmaster! But Rainier Club Extra Pale didn't last long either. In February of '49 the new brewmaster introduced Rainier Beer - with a more colorful label that also featured a prominent image of Mt. Rainier, and a return to the angled logo, shown on can (right) and labels (below).

Rainier Beer can, ca.1949

Rainier Beer label, c.1949

Rainier Krausen beer label, c.1951

In May of '51 another product appeared - Rainier Old Time Kuäusen Beer - shown in the ad (right) and label (above), but it was too little, too late. The introduction of new brands and more colorful packaging did nothing to slow the loss of market share to Lucky Lager , as well as to the penetration of eastern brewers. That, combined with some questionable business practices, led to the demise of the Rainier Brewing Company of San Francisco.

On July 22, 1953, the Rainier Brewing Co. was purchased by Emil G. Sick, who then sold the San Francisco plant to the Theo. Hamm Brewing Co. of MN, retaining sole rights to the Rainier brand. In a matter of one month Rainier Beer was again available in California, but it was now brewed in its birthplace of Seattle.

The Los Angeles plant was also sold but was never again used as a brewery.

 

Breweriana from Rainier of SF

Rainier Beer coaster, Honolulu, ca.1938 (available for purchase - COASTERS)

aluminum sign, ca.1938

Rainier Beer coaster, SF, ca.1941

Rainier poster by Walt Otto c.1941

Rainier waiter, 16" back-bar figurine, ca.1939

Rainier back-bar figurine, ca.1951

Polar Bear back-bar figurine, ca.1949