On any other day, bar manager Erin Roach would be pouring pints of Natty Boh on draft for customers at Remington’s 29th Street Tavern. But since a recent shortage on the city’s most recognizable brew, she’s had to make do with alternatives. A handwritten Post-It note currently stuck to the bar’s Natty Boh tap, partially obscuring Mr. Boh’s famous face, reads “PBR.”

“For us to not have it [Natty Boh], it’s a big bummer,” Roach said. Last year, the 29th Street Tavern was named one of Baltimore’s top three sellers of Boh — they even have an award hanging on the wall to prove it.

Formally known as National Bohemian, the beer dates back to the 1800s and has retained a steady grip on the Baltimore area even decades after it was last brewed in Maryland. Its winking, mustachioed Natty Boh man is as much an icon of the city as crabs and Old Bay seasoning.

But lately, some local bars and liquor stores say they have faced challenges procuring it. Melanie’s at Griffith’s Tavern “went a couple weeks where we couldn’t get full kegs,” said co-owner Allison Crowley. “And cans were scarce.”

It’s enough to push diners to the brink. “I’ve literally had so many people ask me, ‘Do you think it’s being discontinued?’” Roach said over the Wednesday lunch rush at 29th Street Tavern.

According Pabst Brewing Company, which purchased Natty Boh decades ago, the answer is an emphatic “no.” “Natty Boh is not being discontinued,” said senior brand manager Nitasha Chopra. “That is definitely never going to happen.”

Rather, Chopra said, an ongoing shortage of the beer is simply the byproduct of heightened demand for the product: Pabst underestimated how much Boh people would want to drink right now. “We’re actually doing better in terms of volume this year,” she said.

Chopra pointed to a few different factors for the extra thirst, including the beer’s recent return to Camden Yards, and promotions like a Mr. Boh lookalike competition to celebrate the brand’s 140th anniversary.

“I just think were just showing up better than we have before,” Chopra said. “We’re just showing up more for the city.”

And during tough economic times, customers increasingly seem to turn to so-called “below premium” beers like Natty Boh. The ongoing government shutdown, too, has led to more drinking in general, Chopra said.

Those explanations didn’t satisfy Jed Jenny, who heads up the beer department at The Wine Source. The Hampden liquor store is currently out of both 25-ounce cans and 30-packs of Boh. “There’s been some spottiness over the last two months,” he said, noting that he was surprised by how long the shortage has lasted.

Jenny doesn’t think increased demand is to blame, but rather recent changes at Pabst, which began contracting out brewing of Pabst Blue Ribbon and other brands it owns to an Anheuser-Busch facility in Williamsburg, Virginia. Pabst announced the deal early this year, saying the partnership would increase “supply certainty and growth potential,” but Jenny wonders if the hiccups with Natty Boh are related to the switch. “Maybe they underestimated what the volume needed to look like.”

While Chopra acknowledged that Pabst does have an agreement with Anheuser-Busch, she said Boh is actually being produced in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. There are no issues with Pabst’s production facilities, she said, and shortages like this are common across the industry. “It’s not just us,” she said. “It happens with other brands as well.”

Pabst needs to improve its forecasting models to account for the high demand, Chopra said. “We just got to be better about ordering enough beer.”

In the meantime, drinkers seeking an affordable Boh substitute that’s actually brewed in Baltimore have a few options to choose from, Jenny said. He points customers to Zadie’s Lager, made by Union Craft Brewing, or Old Oriole Park from Peabody Heights.

Back at 29th Street Tavern, customer Kirby Wilhelm sipped a Zadie’s with his lunch. He’d originally ordered a Natty Boh. “I was pretty disappointed to know there wasn’t any on draft.”