Olympia Pale Export Type Beer Pint Can

Olympia Pale Export Half Quart Pint

This 16-ounce flat top represents the final era of opener-required steel cans produced by the Olympia Brewing Company before the industry shifted entirely to pull tabs in the mid-1960s. Notable for the elegant cursive "Half Quart" script anchored in its lower white field, the can marks Olympia's return to the true 16-ounce volume after marketing short-lived 15-ounce "King Size" containers between 1959 and 1961. Below the brewery's famous horseshoe emblem, which frames Tumwater Falls and the local railroad trestle, the label proudly prints the brewery's signature slogan, "It's the Water", alongside an explanation attributing the brew's quality to the purity and solvent properties of local artesian wells.

Leopold Schmidt introduced the Pale Export brand in Tumwater, Washington, marketing it on the superior properties of naturally flowing groundwater. The brand capitalized on the "It's the Water" motto beginning in the early 1900s, turning it into one of the most recognizable and durable advertising slogans in American brewing history. Olympia Pale Export evolved into the quintessential working-class lager of the Pacific Northwest, appearing in film, television, and sports sponsorships until declining regional market shares led to its retirement decades later.

Founded in 1896 as the Capital Brewing Company before renaming in 1902, the brewery flourished thanks to the cascading waters of the Deschutes River basin. During Prohibition, the business survived by producing fruit juices, carbonated soft drinks, and powdered milk under the Northwest Fruit Products and Olympia Milk banners. Following repeal in 1933, the brewery resumed beer production at a modernized Tumwater plant and embarked on an ambitious postwar expansion. By the 1970s, Olympia had acquired fellow regional giants Lone Star and Theodore Hamm, but the wave of national consolidation ultimately proved insurmountable. The company was purchased by Pabst in 1983, and the historic Tumwater brewing facility was permanently shuttered in 2003.

For collectors, 16-ounce flat tops occupy a revered niche in breweriana. Pint cans provide a tall, panoramic canvas for regional heraldry, and this half-quart variant stands out as a prime artifact from the twilight of punch-opened steel packaging.