Olympia Beer
Pabst Brewing Company

"It's The Water" -- "Oly" as it's called is famous for it's water source, artesian wells, which are aquafers first named in Artois, France. Olympia itself carries the name of the town it's brewed in -- Olympia,
WA. The standard joke is that "it's the water" that makes you pee, and pee, and pee . . . along with the other jab, "You don't buy beer, you only rent it."

This stuff is pretty generic, unremarkable, macro-brew. Way back in the day (1950's) it was the women who drank Oly, and the men drank something with more body. It's as close to water as you can get and still be carded for proof of age.

On the bottles the labels used to have "dots" on the back. A "four dot" label was traditionally viewed as a sort of coupon for sexual favors. That's the tradition. Actually, the dots note which bottling line the bottle in the brewery rolled off of. There were four bottling lines.

Now, some family history:

ALL my relatives, and there were a lot of them, drank Oly. There was once the remark at a family gathering, circa 1964, that when my family stops drinking Oly, the brewery will go out of business. Ironically, most of my family has passed on, and the Olympia brewing company was bought out by Pabst.

When I was in the military, 1960's, Oly was offered at the PX on the west coast bases. I associated it with "home" and so my brand loyalty grew out of family association and nostalgia.

It's still nostalgic. The brewery in Olympia, WA actually has preserved and maintained the waterfall and bridge depicted on the label.

It passes for beer. But mostly it's all tied up in a lot of family memories.

This is one of the first dozen beers I had when I first started drinking beer. So, I remember this beer fondly and have had it many times over the years.

 

 

Old school early 2000's Olympia after a day at the salvage yard is a dream come true. #Fond memories.

 

L: Pours as a classic lager, golden and translucent. Solid inch head fades after several minutes
S: Smells slightly juicy, definite hops and hints of citrus- aroma reminiscent of a hazy IPA
T: less hops and more malt than the aroma would suggest
F: Gentle on the palate, light and thin
Overall: A water of a beer but one of the better waters out there. Quite a bang for your buck if you seek macro-cheap beer

12oz can stamped JUL 1320 poured into a Pabst thumbprint chalice at fridge temp, no ABV listed on can. The beer pours bright gold in color with nearly white head. The head recedes to a thin ring and single layer of bubbles. The aroma is faint with just a hint of unmalted grain and dry ground corn. The taste is slightly sweet and tangy grain with a little dried corn and barely there sulphur & diacetyl on the mildly bitter finish. The mouthfeel is thin bodied with average carbonation and a somewhat dry finish. Overall, ok to good. Not a lot of taste or flavor here, but what's there is pleasant if you're just looking for something to wash down food or drink with friends.

 

Continuing to run through macros...

Is this really “better” or “worse” than the other adjunct lagers? I supposed. At least its drinkable. Some must. Some grain and corn. Finish the job!

 

 

It's been a little bit of a while since the last time I had this brew. Would rate it just a touch above half way between poor and average. Was an ok tasting beer, but not one that I would seek out.

 

 

Olympia can vs Bud bottle

Both poured in standard pint glass before best buy date. They have similar aggressive carbonation and clear pale appearance. Oly a shade darker than bud and has about half a finger more of head and better lacing

Not alot of smell for either, mainly pale malt & corn with hops for oly and the other smells like sweet grain with no hops

Easy drinking AALs one rice the other corn for adjunts. Oly's hop profile is definitely more pronounced which makes sense as head retention is better. Bud is sweeter but not so sickly sweet as other chepos, still refreshing which is surprising that it has no corn. Even tho, olys better bitter nearly outweighs buds malt rice and hops.

Between these two macro lagers pabst brewed olympia has a little more to offer than Bud. It's got a noticeable hop bite where for any AB product you almost cant even imagine any hops. Questions come into ingredient quality, who has the cleaner barley, water, etc?

Looks like piss, somehow it’s worse than coors.

 

 

I bought a 12-pack in Berkeley for $7.99, which is a good price here. It's not good beer, but it's drinkable and the price is right. I'd rather drink Olympia than Bud, if only because the price is lower.