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Background: Accumulating evidence indicates that adenosine monophosphate (cAMP)‐dependent protein kinase A (PKA) is involved in the neurobiological responses to ethanol. Previous reports indicate that mice lacking the RIIβsubunit of PKA (RIIβ−/−) voluntarily consume more ethanol than wild‐type controls (RIIβ+/+) using 2‐bottle testing procedures. Although such procedures primarily measure consummatory behavior, operant self‐administration procedures allow analysis of consummatory as well as appetitive or “ethanol‐seeking” behavior (i.e., lever pressing is required to gain access to the ethanol solution). Therefore, we determined whether the high ethanol consumption characteristic of RIIβ−/−mice would be complemented by increased appetitive ethanol‐seeking behavior in an operant paradigm.