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Olympia Brewing Company

December 18, 2023

The Olympia Brewing Company was a brewery in the northwest United States, located in Tumwater, Washington, near Olympia. Founded in 1896 by Leopold Friederich Schmidt, it was bought by G. Heileman Brewing Company in 1983. Through a series of consolidations, it was acquired by Pabst Brewing Company in 1999; the Tumwater brewery was closed in 2003.

Olympia Brewing Company
Tumwater brewery in 1989
IndustryAlcoholic beverage
Founded1896, 127 years ago in
Tumwater, Washington
FounderLeopold Friederich Schmidt
Defunct2003, 20 years ago
Headquarters
Los Angeles, California
ProductsBeer
OwnerPabst Brewing Company
Websiteolympia-beer.com
The old Tumwater brewery building in 2012

History edit

Leopold Schmidt, a German immigrant from Montana founded The Capital Brewing Company at Tumwater Falls on the Deschutes River in the town of Tumwater, near the south end of Puget Sound. He 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 and in 1896, began brewing and selling Olympia Beer. In 1902, the firm became 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. Statewide Prohibition, which began in January 1916, four years before National Prohibition, ended beer making operations. After Prohibition ended, a new Olympia Brewery (47°00′56″N 122°54′13″W / 47.0155°N 122.9035°W / 47.0155; -122.9035) was erected just upstream from the original, and Olympia beer went back on sale in 1934.[1]

Olympia was a very popular regional brand in the Pacific Northwest for half of a century.[2] 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,[3] which had previously been a product of the Lone Star Brewing Company.[4] Until the mid-1970s, competitor Coors of Colorado had a limited 11-state distribution area; Washington and Montana were not added until 1976,[5][6] and Oregon did not approve sales of Coors in grocery stores until 1985.[7][8][9][10]

Between 1970 and 1980 Olympia faced flat revenues[11] 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.[12]

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 mid-2003, citing the unprofitability of such a small brewery.[citation needed]

Pabst was purchased, along with the Olympia label, by beer industry veteran Eugene Kashper with backing from TSG Consumer Partners in 2014, and Olympia Beer was brewed under contract by MillerCoors at their brewery in Irwindale, California.[13]

Ag Energy Resources of Benton, Illinois purchased the machinery from Olympia Brewing to make ethanol for motor fuel use.[14]

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.[15]

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.[16]

Use of artesian water edit

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.[17][18][19][20] One later advertising campaign, rather than explaining what artesian water was, claimed the water was controlled by a mythical population of "artesians".[21] Once the brewery was taken over by a larger company, the use of artesian water was discontinued, and so was that advertising campaign.[22]

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.[23]

In popular culture edit

 
The old Tumwater brewery building in 2018.

Daredevil Evel Knievel was sponsored by Olympia Beer. Olympia paid a hefty price tag to have Evel sew patches onto his jackets, signs on his vehicles, even stitching "Olympia Beer" onto parachutes attached to his dragster. This was an attempt to take Olympia nationwide.

 
Olympia Beer label from 1914

Dustin Hoffman's Benjamin Braddock drinks an Olympia beer in The Graduate (1967). Paul Newman drinks Olympia in the movie, Sometimes a Great Notion (1970). Nearly the entire cast, including Marvin Gaye drinks Olympia bottles, stubbies, cans and tall boys, in Chrome and Hot Leather (1971). A neon sign advertising Olympia beer can be seen in the window of the liquor store in American Graffiti (1973). Clint Eastwood promoted the brand in several popular films, including Magnum Force (1973), Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974), The Eiger Sanction (1975), Every Which Way but Loose (1978) (in which his orangutan Clyde also indulges), and Oly is seen in Any Which Way You Can (1980). 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.[24]

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.[25]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Brewery Gems, An Illustrated History of the Olympia Brewing Company (Retrieved on October 25, 2009).
  2. ^ "Beer dot fading away". Daily News. (Bowling Green, Kentucky). Associated Press. May 12, 1978. p. 9A.
  3. ^ Beer Advocate. What Happened to Buckhorn Beer?, (Retrieved on November 2, 2006)
  4. ^ The Buckhorn Museum. Fact Sheet, (Retrieved on November 30, 2008).
  5. ^ "Brewer plans Spokane plant". Spokane Daily Chronicle. (Washington). December 27, 1975. p. 3.
  6. ^ Lazarus, George (September 28, 1976). "Coor's beer adds two more states to market area". Toledo Blade. (Ohio). KNS. p. 31.
  7. ^ "Alas, another Coors tale". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). (editorial). October 2, 1984. p. 10A.
  8. ^ "Coors steps up Oregon sales effort". Ellensburg Daily Record. (Washington). UPI. October 5, 1984. p. 9.
  9. ^ Detzel, Tom (April 11, 1985). "Coors making another try for retail sales in Oregon". Eugene Register-Guard. Oregon. p. 12D.
  10. ^ "Coors rolls out in Oregon". Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). July 23, 1985. p. 5A.
  11. ^ Tri City Herald, Schmidts may lose Olympia beer helm 2/21/1980
  12. ^ Victor J. Tremblay, The U.S. Brewing Industry: Data and Economic Analysis (Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press, 2005), p. 305
  13. ^ . Archived from the original on 2016-01-10. Retrieved 2015-06-05.
  14. ^ "Benton ethanol plant clears hurdles". The Southern. Retrieved 2007-11-28.
  15. ^ "Tumwater brewery fire ignites city's frustration over property access, lack of progress". theolympian. Retrieved 2018-10-10.
  16. ^ "Instagram post by Olympia Beer & Artesian Vodka • Jan 25, 2021 at 7:42pm UTC". Instagram. Archived from the original on 2021-12-25. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  17. ^ "Here is water." Eugene Register-Guard. (Oregon). (advertisement). February 14, 1934. p. 2.
  18. ^ "Thousands ask us why..." Ellensburg Daily Record. (Washington). (advertisement). August 28, 1956. p. 8.
  19. ^ "The best-known secret in brewing". Heppner Gazette-Times. (Oregon). (advertisement). August 20, 1959. p. 4.
  20. ^ "Artesian thirst-aid kit". Spokesman-Review. (Spokane, Washington). (advertisement). June 14, 1982. p. 16.
  21. ^ Kelley Advertising & Marketing: Olympia Beer: A Good Campaign Accelerates the Death of a Brand Archived 2012-12-06 at archive.today . Accessed 2008.11.07.
  22. ^ Beer Advocate: Olympia Beer. Accessed 2008.11.07.
  23. ^ "It's Still the Water" Thurston County PUD Report - CONNECTIONS, Summer 2009, Vol. 3, No. 3 - http://www.wpuda.org/PDF_files/Connections/Summer2009final.pdf 2011-10-08 at the Wayback Machine
  24. ^ Bordowitz, Hank (2007). Bad Moon Rising: The Unauthorized History of Creedence Clearwater Revival. Chicago, Illinois: Chicago Review Press, Incorporated. p. 390. ISBN 978-1556526619.
  25. ^ The 25 Best Beers in the World mensjournal.com

External links edit

  • Olympia Beer Official Web site

December 18, 2023
olympia, brewing, company, brewery, northwest, united, states, located, tumwater, washington, near, olympia, founded, 1896, leopold, friederich, schmidt, bought, heileman, brewing, company, 1983, through, series, consolidations, acquired, pabst, brewing, compa. The Olympia Brewing Company was a brewery in the northwest United States located in Tumwater Washington near Olympia Founded in 1896 by Leopold Friederich Schmidt it was bought by G Heileman Brewing Company in 1983 Through a series of consolidations it was acquired by Pabst Brewing Company in 1999 the Tumwater brewery was closed in 2003 Olympia Brewing CompanyTumwater brewery in 1989IndustryAlcoholic beverageFounded1896 127 years ago inTumwater WashingtonFounderLeopold Friederich SchmidtDefunct2003 20 years agoHeadquartersLos Angeles CaliforniaProductsBeerOwnerPabst Brewing CompanyWebsiteolympia beer wbr comThe old Tumwater brewery building in 2012 Contents 1 History 2 Use of artesian water 3 In popular culture 4 See also 5 References 6 External linksHistory editLeopold Schmidt a German immigrant from Montana founded The Capital Brewing Company at Tumwater Falls on the Deschutes River in the town of Tumwater near the south end of Puget Sound He 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 and in 1896 began brewing and selling Olympia Beer In 1902 the firm became 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 Statewide Prohibition which began in January 1916 four years before National Prohibition ended beer making operations After Prohibition ended a new Olympia Brewery 47 00 56 N 122 54 13 W 47 0155 N 122 9035 W 47 0155 122 9035 was erected just upstream from the original and Olympia beer went back on sale in 1934 1 Olympia was a very popular regional brand in the Pacific Northwest for half of a century 2 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 3 which had previously been a product of the Lone Star Brewing Company 4 Until the mid 1970s competitor Coors of Colorado had a limited 11 state distribution area Washington and Montana were not added until 1976 5 6 and Oregon did not approve sales of Coors in grocery stores until 1985 7 8 9 10 Between 1970 and 1980 Olympia faced flat revenues 11 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 12 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 mid 2003 citing the unprofitability of such a small brewery citation needed Pabst was purchased along with the Olympia label by beer industry veteran Eugene Kashper with backing from TSG Consumer Partners in 2014 and Olympia Beer was brewed under contract by MillerCoors at their brewery in Irwindale California 13 Ag Energy Resources of Benton Illinois purchased the machinery from Olympia Brewing to make ethanol for motor fuel use 14 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 15 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 16 Use of artesian water editFor 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 17 18 19 20 One later advertising campaign rather than explaining what artesian water was claimed the water was controlled by a mythical population of artesians 21 Once the brewery was taken over by a larger company the use of artesian water was discontinued and so was that advertising campaign 22 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 23 In popular culture editThis section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed September 2012 Learn how and when to remove this template message nbsp The old Tumwater brewery building in 2018 Daredevil Evel Knievel was sponsored by Olympia Beer Olympia paid a hefty price tag to have Evel sew patches onto his jackets signs on his vehicles even stitching Olympia Beer onto parachutes attached to his dragster This was an attempt to take Olympia nationwide nbsp Olympia Beer label from 1914Dustin Hoffman s Benjamin Braddock drinks an Olympia beer in The Graduate 1967 Paul Newman drinks Olympia in the movie Sometimes a Great Notion 1970 Nearly the entire cast including Marvin Gaye drinks Olympia bottles stubbies cans and tall boys in Chrome and Hot Leather 1971 A neon sign advertising Olympia beer can be seen in the window of the liquor store in American Graffiti 1973 Clint Eastwood promoted the brand in several popular films including Magnum Force 1973 Thunderbolt and Lightfoot 1974 The Eiger Sanction 1975 Every Which Way but Loose 1978 in which his orangutan Clyde also indulges and Oly is seen in Any Which Way You Can 1980 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 24 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 25 See also editHistory of Olympia Washington List of defunct breweries in the United StatesReferences edit Brewery Gems An Illustrated History of the Olympia Brewing Company Retrieved on October 25 2009 Beer dot fading away Daily News Bowling Green Kentucky Associated Press May 12 1978 p 9A Beer Advocate What Happened to Buckhorn Beer Retrieved on November 2 2006 The Buckhorn Museum Fact Sheet Retrieved on November 30 2008 Brewer plans Spokane plant Spokane Daily Chronicle Washington December 27 1975 p 3 Lazarus George September 28 1976 Coor s beer adds two more states to market area Toledo Blade Ohio KNS p 31 Alas another Coors tale Eugene Register Guard Oregon editorial October 2 1984 p 10A Coors steps up Oregon sales effort Ellensburg Daily Record Washington UPI October 5 1984 p 9 Detzel Tom April 11 1985 Coors making another try for retail sales in Oregon Eugene Register Guard Oregon p 12D Coors rolls out in Oregon Eugene Register Guard Oregon July 23 1985 p 5A Tri City Herald Schmidts may lose Olympia beer helm 2 21 1980 Victor J Tremblay The U S Brewing Industry Data and Economic Analysis Cambridge Massachusetts MIT Press 2005 p 305 Latest News Archived from the original on 2016 01 10 Retrieved 2015 06 05 Benton ethanol plant clears hurdles The Southern Retrieved 2007 11 28 Tumwater brewery fire ignites city s frustration over property access lack of progress theolympian Retrieved 2018 10 10 Instagram post by Olympia Beer amp Artesian Vodka Jan 25 2021 at 7 42pm UTC Instagram Archived from the original on 2021 12 25 Retrieved 2021 01 28 Here is water Eugene Register Guard Oregon advertisement February 14 1934 p 2 Thousands ask us why Ellensburg Daily Record Washington advertisement August 28 1956 p 8 The best known secret in brewing Heppner Gazette Times Oregon advertisement August 20 1959 p 4 Artesian thirst aid kit Spokesman Review Spokane Washington advertisement June 14 1982 p 16 Kelley Advertising amp Marketing Olympia Beer A Good Campaign Accelerates the Death of a Brand Archived 2012 12 06 at archive today Accessed 2008 11 07 Beer Advocate Olympia Beer Accessed 2008 11 07 It s Still the Water Thurston County PUD Report CONNECTIONS Summer 2009 Vol 3 No 3 http www wpuda org PDF files Connections Summer2009final pdf Archived 2011 10 08 at the Wayback Machine Bordowitz Hank 2007 Bad Moon Rising The Unauthorized History of Creedence Clearwater Revival Chicago Illinois Chicago Review Press Incorporated p 390 ISBN 978 1556526619 The 25 Best Beers in the World Archived mensjournal comExternal links editOlympia Beer Official Web site Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Olympia Brewing Company amp oldid 1187266456, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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