The Olympia Brewing Company was a brewery in Tumwater, Washington which existed from 1896 until 2003.
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History
It began brewing in 1896 at the Tumwater Falls of the Deschutes River and continued until Prohibition. It was founded by Leopold Schmidt, a German immigrant living in 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, ownership of this brewery eventually passed through several corporations 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.
Legacy
Dustin Hoffman's Benjamin Braddock in 1967's The Graduate drinks an Olympia beer; as does Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry in 1973's Magnum Force. The brand was also featured in the movies Friday the 13th Part 3, Any Which Way You Can, the Eiger Sanction and Thunderbolt and Lightfoot.
