Olympia Beer, like my daddy used to say, "Son ... it's in the Water!"

My Friend Mac said, "Why don't you Blog about Oly?"

Why not?  I agree... well the first thing I like about it is that it is owned by the Pabst Brewing Company.  Pabst is keeping alive light traditional American larger beers, the working man's beers, one of the beer's of yesteryear that made Mel Famey Walk us... I know you know the joke... if not, it's a play on "The beers that made Milwaukee Famous" and you can click the hyper link for more of that at the end of this posting. Today "Oly" remains a Pacific North West Hipster favorite... it's a beer for guys like me who wouldn't be caught dead shopping for a present for the wife in Switzerland... say for a $48,000 dollar handbag... it's a beer I can afford.  Excuse me...  you are telling me our Oprah was insulted because the lady got bitchy with her about the colour of her skin color... OK, I understand... it ain't right... it's gotta stop... and I hope the sales lady gets fired for not knowing who Oprah is and what's she's worth (some serious bucks) ... but me, I would have had a mild heart attack because of the price they were asking for the bag... are you kidding me?  Someone out there somewhere is selling a blue dyed leather bag hanging in a shop obviously where I don't shop... for folks who have more money than they know what to do with... for $48,000 dollars... for real?

I am simply amazed people have that kind of money to burn... never mind paying that kind of flow for a stupid handbag?  For goodness sake... that's a years salary for the working Joe these day's if he is lucky to find a job in his local area... that is if in his local area our American bankers and industrialists didn't shut the factory down for dividends to the stockholders ten years ago and then then ship the machinery overseas... say over to an authoritarian state not too concerned with human rights issues but is a rising world economy (take your pick as there's a bunch)... where people who live there get to work very long hours for very low wages and have no health benefit plan... OK...that's a story for another day... back to Oly beer!

Olympia Beer got it's start as a Pacific Northwest favorite at the turn of the last century.  The company successfully weathered prohibition periods both state and federal, economic down turns and disasters, and the top guy in the company sometime in the mid 1980's...compromised the company reputation... when he was caught in most embarrassing situation in a public mens-restroom... not cool and we have never heard of such things happening in modern times... have we?  This story about the top dog has nothing to do with the beauty of the beer as much as sales at the time went negative profit and stayed that way for a decade or more. 

Salvation came when the Miller Brewing Company took over Olympia Beer and then Pabst later on got involved...both companies saved the Olympia Beer name but eventually shut down the independent brewery when they moved the whole lot to the present day Miller-Coors brewing facility in Irwindale, California. 

Many older brand larger's are brewed at this facility... and today differ little in taste from the other and for me that's a sad thing as I bet at one time when they were locally brewed where they came from... there was an original taste they built a good reputation on.   Times change... production consolidation is the reason why they survive today at all... and at a price for a 6 pack so low, well... at the end of the day, as my pen-pal  "Pauline" from Australia... who just finished trekking about South America for months on end says... "a light larger after a long hot day can't be beat for Beer O'Clock..." and it's always Beer O' clock somewhere in this beautiful world of ours...she's right you know and at $5.50 for a six of tall boys...

Mac, "I think I shall have an Oly tonight! "

Impact of shutting down the Olympia Brewery on the local Economy

Brewing coming back to the Tumwater Facility

Leave the Bigfoot's alone !

A nice long story about Olympia Beer

The Beer that made Mel Famey Walk us 

What's a Hipster?  Explaination... or  Hatred of...

Bear Wiz Beer on You Tube

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