USA, WA: Volunteers trying to revive brewing in Tumwater

The original home of Olympia Beer is coming back to life. It is part of the overall effort to bring brewing back to Tumwater, KOMO News reported on November 10.

This historic brewery hasn't seen this much love and attention in more than a century. It was built around 1900 on the banks of the Deschutes River with easy access to the artesian water wells where owner Leopold Schmidt coined the phrase 'it's the water'.

But in 1915, beer production ended with Prohibition. Olympia Beer would be brewed 20 years later at a newer plant across the road leaving the iconic building to decay.

"It's always a good feeling coming into this building," Paul Knight said. "It has so much history."

He is the former longtime brew master of Olympia Beer and among the first to volunteer to bring the place back to life. "When we get this building rehabilitated we hope to have a small brewing operation in here again."

A brew pub, restaurant or museum are all possibilities. But first, the old place has to get new again.

The roofing being hoisted is only temporary to keep rain and the elements out while work begins to shore up the brickwork and put a steel structure on the inside bringing it up to earthquake standards. However, the place has withstood three major earthquakes.

This is all part of a larger effort in the city of Tumwater to bring this back to life and also to do something with the original building across the road to 'bring brewing back.'

The newer production plant shut down 14 years ago with new owners hoping to bring it back to life, too, possibly with craft breweries and distilleries.

"The city embarked on a process to really bring brewing back to the community, because when it left in 2003 it left a hole in our community," said Heidi Behrends Cerniwey, Tumwater city brewery project manager. This is the start to filling that hole with completion set for six years from now.

"It really was the heart of Tumwater and the soul of Tumwater and so we want to bring that back," Tumwater mayor Pete Kmet said.

While the first phase of the project will cost $1.5 million, the second phase will make the total project come in at $6 million, with $500,000 of that sitting in the state capital construction budget that the legislature has yet to pass.

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