Rainier Brewing Company - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• The Seattle grunge group Mudhoney was humorously photographed in 1988 with cans of Rainier Beer. The image can be seen on the inside CD cover of the band's Superfuzz Bigmuff + Early Singles release.
• In the 2008 film Twilight, set in Forks, Washington, Rainier beer appears prominently in several scenes, and is referred to as "Vitamin R." Character Charlie Swan is seen drinking the beer in subsequent films in the Twilight series.
• In 2004, a black bear received substantial media attention for having consumed 36 cans of Rainier beer in Baker Lake, Washington. After gaining access to a cooler of beer that belonged to campers, the bear avoided cans of Busch beer and used its claws and teeth to open and then consume the cans of Rainier. A wildlife agent said at the time that "this is a new one on me ... I've known them to get into cans, but nothing like this. And it definitely had a preference."
• In the television series Longmire, the series' main character Sheriff Walt Longmire exclusively drinks Rainier beer, and can be seen drinking it throughout the series. In the pilot episode, a colleague accuses Longmire of drunk driving after empty beer cans are found in his car; Longmire explains the presence of the empty beer cans by saying "Every man who's ever had a beer with me will tell you the same thing - I drink Rainier, always have, always will. Those beer cans, they weren't Rainier, none of them. I picked 'em up because I hate looking at litter. Everyone knows that, too." However, Longmire pronounced the beer's name "ran-YEAH", a close approximation to a French pronunciation. Washington state natives say the name of the beer with the same pronunciation they use for Mount Rainier, "ray-NEAR". In the final episode of season 1, "Unfinished Business," Denver detective Fails (portrayed by Charles S. Dutton) uses the accurate "ray-NEAR" pronunciation.