Chemistry is difficult to define but simple to spot. It’s that little spark that exists between two entities, and without it, an otherwise stellar situation can turn into a flop. For instance, you can have cheese (and it will be glorious) and you can separately have ham (and it will be succulent), but put them together and boom: ham and cheese and delicious. There are other famous duos: Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Reuben’s Brews and Rainier Beer.

What?

It’s true.

Take a multiple award-winning, family owned and operated craft brewery in Ballard, Reuben’s Brews, and pair it with Seattle’s oldest lager (but Pabst owned) with the neon R, Rainier Beer, and you have an exciting collaboration of two Seattle brewing institutions — r & R Pils. New school meets old school, little r meets capital R, in this collaboration, the first in Rainier’s long history.

Join Peaks and Pints as we celebrate the hop-forward r & R Pils at 6 p.m., Wednesday, May 3 inside Peaks and Pints lodge in Tacoma’s Proctor District. We’ll have the r & R Pils pouring from our Western red cedar tap log, as well as Rainier Beer and Reuben’s Pilsner, Rainier swag plus raffling off a limited edition Rainier fire pit!

r & R Pils Party, 6 p.m., Wednesday, May 3, Peaks and Pints, 3816 N. 26th St., Basecamp proctor, Tacoma, no cover