Olympia Pale Export Type Beer 12 Oz Tab Top Can

Olympia Pale Export Tab Top Can

This twelve-ounce tab top container represents a classic packaging era for the Olympia Brewing Company, manufactured with straight steel construction and a narrow side seam. Unlike issues finished in reflective metallic lacquer, this version is defined by its smooth enamel gold background framing the tree-lined horizon. The mandatory statement running along the top rim credits production exclusively to Olympia, Washington, placing the can during the era prior to company expansions that added multiple brewing cities to the packaging.

Founder Leopold Schmidt introduced the flagship Olympia label around the turn of the twentieth century, positioning the pale export lager around the exceptional quality of local natural resources. The brand became synonymous with its long-running slogan, "It's the Water," shown on the front face in red script beneath a horseshoe emblazoned with "GOOD LUCK" and framing a scenic view of Tumwater Falls. Just beneath the slogan, the label retains the historical assertion that the "purity and solvent properties" of the region's artesian wells enabled perfection in brewing. These water-focused advertising campaigns made the brand a Pacific Northwest cultural staple for generations.

Originally established in 1896 as the Capital Brewing Company along the Deschutes River in Tumwater, the enterprise took advantage of abundant artesian wells before adopting the Olympia Brewing Company name in 1902. When statewide and federal Prohibition halted beer production, the company survived by manufacturing commercial fruit juices and syrups, allowing it to reopen its brewing operations promptly upon repeal in 1933. Olympia grew into one of the largest regional brewing companies in the Western United States. Amid intense market consolidation during the late twentieth century, the company changed hands through acquisitions by Pabst, eventually leading to the closure of the historic Tumwater plant in 2003.

For breweriana collectors, this can holds enduring appeal as an emblematic artifact of Pacific Northwest brewing heritage. Because Olympia produced its Pale Export label across differing seam widths, enamel treatments, and evolving brewery addresses, straight steel examples from this period serve as an important bridge between earlier mid-century flat tops and later lightweight aluminum pull tabs.