OLYMPIA — There’s a new beverage in the Olympia area that’s going to sound awfully familiar to those who grew up drinking a beer from the local brewery.
It has a similar name, it’s produced and bottled in Tumwater and it has ties to the current owner of the Olympia beer brand, a business that also once owned the former brewery that overlooks Tumwater Falls.
Put that all together and you have a partnership between Olympia Distilling Co. and Pabst Brewing Co. that has resulted in a spirit called Olympia Artesian Vodka.
The new spirit was set to launch sooner, but it was delayed in March by COVID-19, said Lesa Givens, who co-owns Olympia Distilling with Ray Watson. The two shifted to making 12,000 bottles of hand sanitizer in the interim.
But Givens and Watson were able to return to working on the new product, and Pabst announced the beverage last week.
If Watson and Givens sound familiar, that’s because they used to run Blind Pig Spirits, which made vodka and white whiskey in downtown’s 222 Market Building. The business later changed its name to Shoebox and then late last year expanded into 7,100 square feet of manufacturing space on Mottman Road in Tumwater, not far from South Puget Sound Community College.
It was around that time that they met a man who did label work for Pabst, which ultimately led to the current partnership, Watson said.
“With Ray and Lesa, we struck gold,” said Sam Morrison, who works for Pabst as the associate brand manager for Olympia Artesian Vodka.
Watson described the vodka as “smooth and with no afterburn,” but details about the blend were proprietary, he said. The production facility is just that: It doesn’t have a tasting room and the vodka isn’t for sale there.
But the vodka can be purchased in the area, including at Total Wine & More in west Olympia, T-Brothers Liquor Lodge downtown, Lacey Liquor & Beverage and restaurants such as Chelsea Farms Oyster Bar downtown and Lady of the Lake in Tenino.
The vodka is sold in 750 milliliter bottles and is 80 proof, 40 percent alcohol by volume.
The spirit and Olympia Distilling have had some early success, according to Pabst. The vodka was awarded silver in the New York International Spirits Competition and named best vodka distillery in Washington state.
“We couldn’t be more excited,” Givens said.
The production space is big enough to produce 20,000 half-cases per year, Watson said. So far it’s Watson and Givens, plus one employee and some part-time assistance.
The walls of the production facility have photos of the former Olympia brewery workers, Watson said.
“We have a giant responsibility to continue that legacy and give back to the community,” he said.
