Olympia Brewing Company

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The Olympia Brewing Company was a brewery in Tumwater, Washington which existed from 1896 until 2003.

It began brewing in 1896 at a site along the Deschutes River and continued until Prohibition. It was founded by Leopold Schmidt, a German immigrant by way of Montana. After Prohibition ended, a new brewery was erected just upstream from the original.

Olympia Beer was a very popular regional Pacific Northwest brand which eventually expanded nationwide, positioned as a low-price beer. During the 1970s, Olympia acquired Hamm's and Lone Star. The Schmidt Family, which owned and operated the Brewery and company, elected to sell to Heilemann's Old Style Beer Company in 1982. Heilemann's was subsequently purchased by Pabst in 1983.

As with many other regional breweries, this brewery was eventually bought and passed through several corporate hands including Pabst, G. Heileman, and Stroh's, until the brewery was eventually purchased by SABMiller. 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, Oregon, and the Rainier Beer brewery in Seattle, Washington. Miller closed the Olympia brewery on July 1, 2003 citing the unprofitability of such a small brewery, though this was probably more closely related to the union politics that dominated the brewery.

Artesian Water from the Tumwater wells is no longer used in the brewing process and it has been suggested that the quality of the taste has decreased since artesian water is no longer used. Olympia Beer's demonstrable difference, for marketing purposes at least, was that it was made from that "pure artesian water." Ad lines for years went: "It's The Water." Just before the brewery was sold, the ad campaign did a spoof on local "Big Foot" legends. The ads featured sightings of "The Artesians" with any number of colorful locals saying "I seen 'em!"

The beer was featured in the movie "Friday the 13th Part III".