Olympia Pale Export Type Beer 12 Oz Zip Top Can

Olympia Pale Export Zip Top Can

This twelve-ounce straight steel zip top container represents a classic mid-twentieth-century packaging era for the Olympia Brewing Company of Olympia, Washington. Rendered with a metallic background finish, the lithographed label features the brewery's traditional layout alongside specific print markers, including a red asterisk printed immediately to the left of the famous slogan and a secondary asterisk positioned higher on the face near the central emblem. The can prominently bears the designation "Pale Export Type" across the upper portion and highlights the purity and solvent properties of the region's artesian water at the base.

Olympia Pale Export was the brewery's flagship offering, first marketed in October 1896. Promoted as a light, refreshing beverage, the brand was anchored by the renowned advertising slogan "It's the Water," which was introduced in 1902. The visual identity famously incorporated a downward-facing "Good Luck" horseshoe framing the Tumwater Falls on the Deschutes River, flanked by hops and barley. Olympia heavily emphasized its pure artesian water source in regional advertising campaigns throughout the twentieth century, establishing a loyal following across the American West.

Founded in 1896 by German immigrant and master brewer Leopold Schmidt, the business began under the name Capital Brewing Company in Tumwater, Washington. Schmidt selected the location because of its pristine artesian springs and the power supplied by the falls. Renamed the Olympia Brewing Company in 1902, the enterprise became one of the largest private employers in the region. Although Washington's early adoption of Prohibition halted brewing in 1916, the Schmidt family maintained the facility through alternative commercial ventures and resumed beer production following repeal in 1933. Olympia expanded rapidly in the post-war years before industry-wide consolidation led to its purchase by the Pabst Brewing Company in 1983, with the historic Tumwater facility eventually closing in 2003.

Pacific Northwest breweriana occupies a major place in can collecting, with Olympia's recognizable horseshoe emblem serving as an enduring symbol of mid-century regional brewing. Steel zip top examples from this period offer collectors a window into the transition of canning technology and subtle factory print shifts.