"It's the water": a history of the Olympia Brewing company, 1896-1983

Megan Elisabeth Ockerman

Established in 1896 by German immigrant, Leopold F. Schmidt, the Olympia Brewing Company brought prosperity to the small communities of Olympia and Tumwater as the largest private employer for eighty-seven years. Schmidt successfully operated a brewery in Butte, Montana for twenty years, but after a visit to the Washington state capitol, he moved his family westward to start a new venture. Originally named the Capital Brewing Company, the business quickly gained popularity around the Pacific Northwest. In 1902, the name changed to Olympia Brewing and the famous slogan, "It's the Water," was coined. For the next decade, demand increased to the point where the plant could not keep up with the requests pouring in. Although business was flourishing, so was the Prohibition movement. In 1914, Leopold Schmidt died and Washington state passed a bill outlawing the sale of alcohol, indefinitely closing the brewery. The Schmidt family dealt with adversity by repurposing machinery and warehouses to suit other business projects, but did not lose hope that Prohibition would be repealed. When that happened in 1933, they leapt at the opportunity to run a powerful brewery once again. The company faced other obstacles over the years, mainly war shortages and regular expansion projects to keep up with demand. The most persistent struggle, and what ultimately ended Olympia's production in the Northwest, was industry-wide consolidation after Prohibition. The huge brewery conglomerates of the Midwest merged or acquired smaller plants at an impressive pace. First with successful advertising, and then by buying out failing breweries, Olympia tried to compete on a national level. In the end, however, the family-run regional brewery could not evade the corporations either. In 1983, Pabst purchased Olympia, and in 2003 production moved to California. The Olympia brewery is a sore spot in the recent memory of locals, but also a point of pride. After over a decade of vacancy, how to repurpose the property while commemorating the brewery's past is still up for debate among the community.

"It's the water": a history of the Olympia Brewing company, 1896-1983

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