Citing a “growing decline in” demand and sales, Pabst Brewing Company announced it is “temporarily pausing production” of the 125-year-old Olympia Beer brand.
In a post titled “Farewell for now …” to the Olympia Instagram page, the company wrote that it had “spent several years trying to bring Olympia Beer back home to be brewed locally” but sales of the brand had continued to slide.
“Sadly, we have not been able to find a solution to the challenges posed by reduced beer sales and have had to make the difficult decision of temporarily pausing production of Olympia Beer,” the company wrote. “We remain committed to finding the best solution to keep brewing Olympia Beer in the future.”
Although the legacy lager brand is going into hibernation for an undetermined amount of time, Pabst wrote that “Olympia’s story will continue in Tumwater at the Olympia Distilling Co.,” which was started in 2020 with the Olympia Artesian Vodka brand.
“[W]e remain hopeful that we can bring our beloved beer home someday,’ the company wrote. “We are dedicated to carrying on Leopold Schmidt’s legacy and ensuring that Olympia’s story lives on for many years to come.”
The Instagram post confirms rumors of the Olympia beer brand’s demise, which began circulating last week as retailers told The Olympian that the brand was ceasing production and they were buying up remaining stock of the beer.
The Olympia beer brand had been brewed since 1896, although production of the beer had left Washington state about two decades ago.
In 2020, portfolio-wide off-premise dollar sales of Pabst Brewing Company products increased 4.5%, to nearly $535.3 million, according to market research firm IRI.