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| My Friend Mac said, "Why don't you Blog about Oly?" |
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
Back to My Happy Eye
Local brewing is becoming a thing of the past and the future. The "old ones" of our grandparents era have either been bought up by the larger companies, survived due to a superior product (despite the competition from the "big boys" with deep pockets and reliable supply systems), or flat out died on the vine due to any number of economic or management problems. What IS LEFT are superior beers with great taste. Sure, you might hate the taste of Bud, but like Bud Light Lime. I understand that, since all tastes of beer can be satisfied with some trial and error. In the last 1980s a small-time brewery popped up in Lawrence, Kansas called the Free State Brewery. The FSB makes great beer. You can also get food there, but the beer is what made the FSB. Samuel Adams beer is also one of the great beer makers in the States but on a much larger scale. Deep pockets help when it comes to making beer, but without great tasting beer nothing else matters. Make a great beer, and they will drink it. Cheers!
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