Schmidt and his brother Louis built a four-story wooden brewhouse, a five-story cellar building, a one-story ice factory powered by the lower falls, and a bottling and keg plant. After sampling two containers of water from the Deschutes River with the Whal-Henius Institute, Schmidt declared, "with this water, I believe I can brew better beer than ever"[2] and in 1896, began brewing and selling Olympia Beer.
Illustration from Olympia Brewing Company, c.1890
20th century
In 1902, the brewery was renamed to Olympia Brewing Company, with Frank Kenney as the Company Secretary. It was Frank Kenney who proposed the slogan "It's the Water" to promote the brewery's flagship product.
In 1909, the company was considered the principal industry in Tumwater and estimated to have over 100 employees with a $100,000 annual payroll.[3]
Leopold Schmidt died in 1914 and brewing operations stopped in 1915,[2] allowing a year to deplete inventory and dismantle operations before the Statewide Prohibition, which began in January 1916 (four years before National Prohibition).
Olympia was a very popular regional brand in the Pacific Northwest for half of a century.[5] It eventually expanded nationwide, repositioned as a low-price lager. During the 1970s, Olympia acquired Hamm's and Lone Star, and also produced Buckhorn Beer,[6] which had previously been a product of the Lone Star Brewing Company.[7] Until the mid-1970s, competitor Coors of Colorado had a limited 11-state distribution area; Washington and Montana were not added until 1976,[8][9] and Oregon did not approve sales of Coors in grocery stores until 1985.[10][11][12][13]
Between 1970 and 1980 Olympia faced flat revenues[14] among consolidating nationwide breweries and, in 1982, the Schmidt family, which owned and operated the brewery and company, elected to sell the company. Olympia was subsequently purchased by G.Heileman Brewing Company in 1983, which was purchased by Stroh Brewery Company in 1996. In 1999, Pabst bought most of the Stroh brands, including Olympia.[15]
The old Tumwater brewery building, 2012
The old Olympia brewery in Tumwater, 2018
21st century
The brewery, c.1906-1910
The brewery was eventually purchased by Miller Brewing Company. For a time, the Olympia brewery took over the brewing of other Pacific Northwest brands as their original breweries were closed one by one, including the Lucky Lager brewery in Vancouver, Washington, the Henry Weinhard's brewery in Portland, and even the brewery of its arch-rival, Rainier Beer, in Seattle. In 2002, SAB bought out Miller Brewing Co.; SABMiller closed the Tumwater facility in June 2003,[4] citing the unprofitability of such a small brewery.[citation needed]
On January 25, 2021 Pabst Brewing Company announced on Twitter that it was "temporarily pausing production" of Olympia Beer because of a lack of demand and to focus attention on its distilled spirit line under the Olympia Distilling Company brand.[18]
The 1934 Olympia Brewery, situated on 100 acres (40ha) on Custer Way in Tumwater, was shuttered in 2003 and the campus has since remained in a "derelict" state.[4] The site was privately purchased in 2016 and by the 2020s, the site was described as "depressing", "unsightly" and an "eyesore".[20]
Part of the brewery complex was heavily damaged in a fire on October 7, 2018. The administration building's south side partially collapsed, and a 3-alarm fire call caused fire units to respond from many neighboring departments.[21] An oil leak from the brewery contaminated nearby Deschutes River in 2019; the city fined the owner and a settlement was agreed to with the state.[20]
Local citizens and the city of Tumwater have suggested several proposals to convert the site for various uses, including reopening the facility for another brewery.[4] As the campus resides in what is known as the "Brewery District",[20] additional suggestions include converting the buildings into a commercial and residential mixed-use complex, as part of the district. Possible contamination at the brewery has prevented any actions to convert the grounds for other use.[4]Eminent domain has been suggested, but the city found the costs to be prohibitive.[20]
Use of artesian water
For many years, Olympia Beer was brewed with water obtained from artesian wells. The company's promotions made much of the use of artesian water in the brewing process.[22][23][24][25] One later advertising campaign, rather than explaining what artesian water was, claimed the water was controlled by a mythical population of "artesians".[26] Once the brewery was taken over by a larger company, the use of artesian water was discontinued, and so was that advertising campaign.[27]
In downtown Olympia, current efforts to preserve the use of artesian water at one of the remaining public wells has been the mission of H2Olympia: Artesian Well Advocates.[28]
The werewolves of "The Colony" in 1980's The Howling drink Oly, as do Farmer Vincent and his family in Motel Hell, and Rebecca Balding is seen drinking Olympia in bed in Silent Scream, also from that year. The Blues Brothers Band drinks $300 worth of Olympia in 'Bob's Country Bunker' tavern in The Blues Brothers (1980) John Denver drinks an Olympia in "Oh, God!" (1977). Signage and cans being consumed are also easily visible in The China Syndrome (1979). The brand was also featured in the movie Friday the 13th Part III (1982) and Airport 1975 (1974). A neon light Olympia Beer sign can be seen in the roadhouse bar in the vampire cult-classic Near Dark (1987) and in the Matt Damon film Promised Land (2012). In the independent B-movie Clawed: The Legend of Sasquatch (2005), the teen-age campers and the adult hunters were drinking the brand. Josh Brolin's George W. Bush drinks a barely recognizable bottle of Olympia beer in W. (2008). Bill Hader's character drinks several cans of Olympia Beer in The To Do List (2013). Many of the characters in The Hollywood Knights drink Olympia beer in stubby bottles. It can also be seen in the 1983 American horror/thriller film Cujo. Olympia Beer is also being drank by Tommy Lee Jones in A Coal Miners Daughter.
The second word in American rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival's name is derived from an Olympia advertising campaign.[29] The movie House of Games includes a set with cases of Olympia Beer stacked toward the back of the room.[citation needed] In a Mickey Rooney movie from the Andy Hardy series, the title character has to change a tire on his dad's car. On the street in front of their house, Mickey and his dad remove a case of Olympia Beer from the trunk to get at the spare tire jack.[citation needed] Olympia Beer was praised as one of the top 25 beers in the world in a 2012 MensJournal.com review article.[30]
↑Bordowitz, Hank (2007). Bad Moon Rising: The Unauthorized History of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Review Press, Incorporated. p.390. ISBN978-1556526619.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
