Olympia Beer

Olympia Beer

American Adjunct Lager

Pabst Brewing Co.

IBU's: Very low (?)

Alcohol: 4.78%

Firstly, check out my sweet picture of that Olympia can!  I feel I may have taken the best picture of Olympia beer ever.  

It even has some dents in the can.  

Classic.

One year my younger brother (also written about in my Olde English review here) went to the Mountain Brewer's Beer Fest (I wrote about my experience here).  

Now this isn't just a normal small city beer fest, this is a MASSIVE Western American beer festival.  I'm talking 140+ breweries, 1200+ beers, and thousands and thousands of people.  

You know what that means?  

More delicious craft beer than you could safely taste in a week without ending up passed out in the gutter, pants around your ankles.

My brother goes to this beer festival and I'm really not sure why.  He's not exactly into craft beer.  Or beer with hops.  Or flavor.  Or any sort of character.  Unless you think "watery" is a desirable trait.  Anyway, he goes to this event and immediately gravitates toward the most polar opposite stand from what the festival is intended for... Olympia.  

That's right, he goes to a craft beer festival with 1200+ beers and drinks Olympia.  Granted, there was no line at the Olympia stand there so he could drink sample after sample.  But seriously, Oly?

I don't get it.  I bet he didn't even get half of his money's worth for what his ticket cost.  And Olympia costs less than water, soda, and just about any drink you can buy.  It's honestly like 30 cents a can.

Okay, a little back story.  Olympia was originally brewed in Tumwater, Washington on the Deschutes River starting in 1896, making it truly oldschool.  There was an 18 year period (during statewide and national Prohibition) where the beer was obviously not being made.  Their famous "It's the Water" slogan started in 1902, referring to the artesian water drawn from near the Deschutes River.  Many whisky producers claim that water influences the taste of their product, so I guess it could also influence a watery ass beer (water being the key here).  UNFORTUNATELY, starting in 2003 Pabst commissioned MillerCoors to brew their Olympia beer in Irwindale, California.  And despite the move to California, they still use the same slogan, but now the slogan is bullshit.  That's right, bullshit.  You can't use the same slogan, referring to artesian well water from near the Deschutes River, but make it with crappy tap water in California.

So, despite how crappy Olympia beer now tastes, I have a hope that it used to be better when it was brewed with artesian well water in Washington.  I'm probably wrong and it's always been awful, but I can have my fantasies.

Olympia Beer pours a super light, weedy straw color and smells fairly mild and of sweet grains.  It tastes as you'd expect for an oldschool American beer, light sweet malts, dank musty corn, and water.  It's fizzy and light, like most mass produced, oldschool American style brews with hops pretty much nonexistent.  

This is almost as close to water as beer gets, which is why it pisses me off that they changed the water source to crappy California tap water instead of fancy artesian well water from Washington.  

Well, whatever.  I don't care that much.  It's just Oly for hell's sake.

Drink This: if you want a taste of oldschool American beer.  This is the stereotypical old man beer.  And at less than 50 cents a can, who can argue with what a bargain it is.

Don't Drink This:  if you want beer with flavors other than water, water, more water, and a hint of musty, old corn and malt.

Cheers!