Olympia Export Type Beer Test Can

Olympia Export Type Test Can

The Olympia Export Type Beer Test Can is an all-aluminum twelve-ounce tab top container manufactured during packaging trials in the late 1970s to early 1980s. This sample reflects the transitional era when American packaging adopted Universal Product Codes (UPC barcodes) alongside dual standard and metric volume statements (12 FL. OZ. and 355 ml). Visually, the can features the red script designation "Export Type" positioned above the arched gold block lettering, set against an off-white field filled with subtle vertical pinstripes. Anchoring the design is the Tumwater Falls illustration framed by the traditional "Good Luck" horseshoe emblem, flanked by clusters of hops and ripe barley.

Olympia established itself in the late nineteenth century as a prominent Pacific Northwest regional beer. The brand staked its reputation on the local water table at Tumwater, Washington, immortalized in its famous and long-running slogan, "It's the Water". Paired with the horseshoe and waterfall motif, Olympia promoted its pale export-style beers on the merits of natural artesian purity. Throughout the mid-twentieth century, the brand expanded across the Western states and into broader national distribution, becoming an iconic fixture of American brewing culture.

Originally founded in 1896 as the Capital Brewing Company by German immigrant brewmaster Leopold Schmidt, the business adopted the Olympia Brewing Company name in 1902. Operating alongside the cascading Tumwater Falls, the brewery grew rapidly until Washington enacted state-level prohibition in 1916. The Schmidt family preserved the company through the dry years by manufacturing fruit juices, syrups, and commercial refrigeration equipment before resuming brewing immediately upon Repeal in 1933. Olympia experienced major postwar expansion, acquiring other prominent regional operations like Theodore Hamm and Lone Star during the 1970s. Facing increasing pressure from large national conglomerates, the business was acquired by Pabst in 1983, and brewing at the historic Tumwater facility ceased in 2003.

Test cans occupy a distinguished place in breweriana collecting because they capture the developmental phase of can design. Manufactured in short experimental runs by can companies to check ink registration, background patterns, and barcode placement prior to mass production, this prototype provides a clear snapshot of late-twentieth-century packaging history.