Oh frabjous day, I found Olympia beer!

Cafe Society
1

I haven’t had beer in more than a week, because of financial embarrassment, but this evening, it’s only 2 days until payday and I had a few bucks, so I went to my favorite beer vendor intending to purchase some Miller Lite, or, alternatively, some PBR swill.

I was reaching for a half-rack of my usual stuff when I happened to glance down. And there, on a lower shelf, was an 18-pack of Olympia Beer. I literally did a double-take, because I’d never seen Oly in this store. And, to the best of my knowledge, Olympia was an extinct beer. But it was a beer I seriously enjoyed in my youth.

So … FUCK YEAH I’M BUYING OLY TONIGHT!

Here, I took a picture: http://www.mister-rik.com/hosted/oly.jpg

Classic Olympia can, except for the red “The Original” in script above the word “Olympia”. I have no idea who is brewing this now; it can’t be “the original” if it’s not made with “the water”. I personally saw the original Olympia brewery just a few months ago, on the way to my aunt’s memorial service (she lived near, and worked in Olympia, WA), and it was a closed-down, overgrown, abandoned building. I remember touring the place when I was way too young to drink. So whoever is brewing Oly now can’t be using “the water”. (For those not in the know, Oly’s slogan was, for years, “It’s the water”, referring to the particular artesian spring water they used in the brewing.)

But I bought the beer … and damn, this stuff is good! Like I said, I’ve grown accustomed to drinking Miller Lite and PBR when I need a cheap beer. And both of those do the job. They get me drunk inoffensively. But I cracked open that first can of Oly and … Holy Shit, this stuff has some flavor to it! It’s a robust lager with great, bold taste, and a satisfying finish. And no unpleasant aftertaste.

The sad thing is that I can’t honestly say, “This is the Olympia I remember!” The last time I drank Olympia Beer was … 1993? In 1994, for various reasons, I stopped drinking, and remained sober for the next 13 years. When I started drinking again, in moderation, in 2007, Oly had vanished. So I really can’t honestly compare this fresh Oly with the Oly I drank 20+ years ago.

But dammit, this is tasty beer. If you can get it where you are, try it.

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The Olympia brand, for the record, is now owned by Pabst and brewed in northern California at the same facility that makes Rainier these days.

3

Rainier beer?

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Ugh … any my hangover isn’t too terrible this morning …

Smapti, are you as saddened as I am by the condition of the Oly brewery? It was a landmark when my family went to visit my aunts when I was a kid. I suspect that, if I ever get around to visiting the city where I grew up, Vancouver, WA, that I’m going to miss seeing the giant, neon, script “L” that was on top of the Lucky Lager brewery there.

5

I remember touring the Oly brewery in the 70’s. After a nice tour, you were invited to the bar. As long as you kept your clothes on and didn’t shout nastiness, you could drink all day. Very friendly folk.

6

Did you say: “Pabst Blue Ribbon? Fuck that shit…OLYMPIA!!”

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Actually, there’s a sale pending for a group that wants to redevelop it:

Here’s a link to the larger story, with a caveat: the News Tribune’s website is rife with popups, popunders, popthroughs and popovers. Approach with caution and a good ad-blocker.

8

It closed the year before I moved up here, so I never saw it in its glory. There’s been the occasional talk about redeveloping it for the better part of a decade, but I’ve yet to see any progress.

One neat thing has been salvaged from the old brewery though - the old steam whistle, which sounded at 5 PM every weekday to signal quitting time, has been installed on the roof of a craft brewery downtown (Fish Tale, which makes a damn fine IPA, as well as Spire Mountain hard cider and Leavenworth German-style beers) and they’ve continued the tradition of blowing it at five every day. I can hear it from my house nearly a mile away.

Lucky Lager is also brewed in California at the brewery that makes Olympia and Rainier now. That sign is gone, but the old Rainier brewery in Seattle has had its classic “R” sign reinstalled on top (the building is now the headquarters of Tully’s Coffee, and for a time they had a giant “T” on top until locals convinced them to bring the R back.)

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Oly was our go-to beer as an 18 year old in the 60s. It had a peppery finish to it that I liked, and it was cheap. I didn’t know they sold out.

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As I recall, the Artesians walked out, protesting the working conditions in their wells, and that was pretty much the end of it…

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Pabst bought them all the way back in 1983, for the record.

I don’t usually go for standard pale lagers, but Olympia is a pretty tasty beer. It’s much milder than the IPAs I usually drink, but it’s got just a bit of distinctive hop flavor that’s hard to put your finger on, it goes down smooth, and it goes good with just about anything.

Surprisingly enough, Men’s Journal rates it as one of the 25 best beers in the world, the only American macrobrew on a list otherwise populated by craft brews and obscure European varieties.

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When I was a kid my grandma and her brothers and sisters and extended family all pounded case after case of Olympia. When someone says “beer” I get a mental image of that exact can, Olympia will always be the generic version of beer to me.

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That would explain it. That was around the time I left the States to work overseas, and didn’t come back to stay until 1998, so my association with mainstream American beers went to zero. In the interim I learned what good beer tastes like while living and traveling in Europe. When I came back I was, by default, a beer snob, as I could no longer tolerate the heavily carbonated macros. I was so relieved to find that the US had entered the micro-brew craze. I think the only macros that I’ve had since then were a couple of Sam Adams (which aren’t bad) when I was in San Antonio for a visit, and a Pabst that my neighbor foisted off on me (blech).

The beers of my misspent yoot were Oly, Lucky, Rainier, Hamms and PBR, along with some really cheap rotgut.

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Toss in Coors Banquet and that was my yoot as well.

As a side note, I heard tell from some Seattleites that Tully’s was basically told to either put the R back on the building or face a city-wide boycott of their product. Either way, I’m glad to hear the r is back. the green T was an abomination unto Nuggan.

I’ve been seeing Oly down here recently as well. They must have inked a new deal with a different distributor.

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Coors? We didn’t get the high class stuff in Alaska. Don’t know as I ever even saw Bud. I never even heard of Coors until I’d been in the military awhile. When I finally had a can, it was like: hmmm. . .Rainier from Colorado.

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LOL - when I was still cooking in conventions, we had one regular group who held a convention a couple times a year, and I guess they must have been a union organization, because one of the specifics on their parties was “No Coors”.

Anyway, since I’ve discovered Oly at my favorite beer store, I seem to have become an Oly “evangelist”. If there is another beer-buyer in the aisle when I’m grabbing that case of Oly, I encourage them to try it for themselves, and mention that such-and-such site named it one of the best 25 beers in the world.

I haven’t yet seen somebody buy the next case, but, dammit, I’m gonna do my best to make sure this store keeps stocking Oly.

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But how many dots were on the label?

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Olympia and Coors were both rivals weren’t they? Both claiming to be brewed with “cool Spring waters” or something like that. Also iirc Olympia had two push-buttons to open, Coors had the standard flip tab. Decent light ish beer but I have not had one for many moons.

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The borogoves must be pretty mimsy on such a frabjous day.

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You’ve got that backwards. Coors was, IIRC, the first beer to have the two-button opening. Oly ran the standard pull-tab until they developed the current non-detach tab opener. I remember because we drank mainly Coors and that stupid two button system really cut the hell out of your fingers on the third beer and later.