Anheuser-Busch buys Rolling Rock

[maxrandb]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12870097/

There goes another local brand sucked up by a giant corporation.

Rolling Rock trivia: Can anyone tell me what the "33" on each bottle represents.

As an Ohioan, I occasionally enjoyed a few (probably too many Rolling Rocks).

ST. LOUIS - Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc., citing consumers’ need for variety in beer, said Friday it will pay $82 million to purchase the Rolling Rock beer brand from InBev USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Belgian-Brazilian brewer InBev SA.

The deal will make Rolling Rock brands available to more consumers, St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch said. The company will begin brewing Rolling Rock and Rock Green Light in August. Anheuser-Busch, maker of the top-selling beer and light beer, Budweiser and Bud Light, is the nation’s largest brewer.

Anheuser-Busch said it will maintain Rolling Rock’s and Rock Green Light’s recipes, and will continue to sell the beers in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

-----------------------------

All I can say is "Thank God for micro-brews"

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. Great memories of Jersey shore vacations gone

I guess

[maxrandb]

5. I don't understand the attraction of Bud

Amheiser-Busch I'm sure controls a great deal of the market, and I've been known to drink their products, but it really is kind of lousy beer.

Heard that Bud is sponsoring the world cup in Germany and are only selling Busch products in the stadium. The Germans are setting up beer tents outside the stadium and are urging fans to only drink wine inside the stadium. Guess the Germans know their beer.

[xxqqqzme]

31. a friend once said bud tastes like horse piss smells

If you have ever owned a horse or been around them you know he speaks the truth.

I have never understood the popularity of bud. There are much better tasting beers out there.

[saigon68]

43. HORSE PISS-- My friend once said it smelled like

DONKEY PISS.

I guess they knew a thing or 2 about PISS

[NJCher]

2. hope they keep the recipe straight

But I don't trust them. I'm very sensitive to additives and RR is the only brand of beer I can drink without a reaction.

Boy, I hate it when my favorite brands get bought up by big corporations. The Body Shop a couple months ago, now this.




Cher

[mr_hat]

16. Does beer brewed under the Reinheitsgebot not work for you? >

"...the only ingredients used for the brewing of beer must be Barley, Hops and Water."

[William Seger]

39. Works for me

If they use rice and/or corn, as RR and most American "beers" do, they ought not be allowed to call it "beer." :toast:

I didn't used to be such a beer snob until I started homebrewing and learned what beer is supposed to taste like. Now, I'd rather just drink coke if I can't at least get a Sam Adams (which is pretty danged good, imo). Fortunately, there are a lot of great American beers being made today -- just not by the big companies like A-B.

[RT_Fanatic]

30. If you live in PA

You should give Straub beer a try. Made in St. Mary's PA (near DuBois), it's free of additives, I believe.

[bunkerbuster1]

35. RR was already owned by a big multinational corporation

just sayin'.

[Catch22Dem]

37. Who bought The Body Shop?

[Freddie Stubbs]

3. '33' The year that prohibition ended

Taht is at least what most people have guessed.

[maxrandb]

9. I thought that too. Then I found this

I love the part that I bolded toward the end.

"The official explanation for the number, which is not entirely coterminous with the REAL explanation, is that 33 signifies two things: the year Prohibition was repealed (1933), and the number of words in the legend printed above the number on cans and returnable bottles. I quote:

"Rolling Rock from glass lined tanks in the Laurel Highlands. We tender this premium beer for your enjoyment as a tribute to your good taste. It comes from the mountain springs to you."

Now, this is a touching sentiment, and there is no question it has 33 words in it. But from the standpoint of intellectual satisfaction, it sucks.

Therefore, I hunted up James L. Tito, who at one time was chief executive officer of Latrobe Brewing, the maker of Rolling Rock beer.

Mr. Tito's family owned Latrobe from the end of Prohibition until the company was sold to an outfit in Connecticut in 1985. After some prompting, he told me the sordid truth.

Based on some old notes and discussions with family members now dead, Mr. Tito believes that putting the 33 on the label was nothing more or less than a horrible accident. It happened like this:

When the Titos decided to introduce the Rolling Rock brand around 1939, they couldn't agree on a slogan for the back of the bottle. Some favored a long one, some a short one. At length somebody came up with the 33-word beauty quoted above, and to indicate its modest length, scribbled a big "33" on it.

More argument ensued, until finally somebody said, dadgummit, boys, let's just use this one and be done with it, and sent the 33-word version off to the bottle maker.

Unfortunately, no one realized that the big 33 wasn't supposed to be part of the design until 50 jillion returnable bottles had been made up with the errant label painted permanently on their backsides. (I suppose this bespeaks a certain inattentiveness on the part of the Tito family, but I am telling you this story just as it was told to me.)

This being the Depression and all, the Titos were in no position to throw out a lot of perfectly good bottles. So they decided to make the best of things by concocting a yarn about how the 33 stood for the year Prohibition was repealed.

In retrospect, this was a stroke of marketing genius. Next to cereal boxes, beer labels are probably the most thoroughly scrutinized artifacts in all of civilization, owing to the propensity of beer drinkers to stare morosely at them at three o'clock in the morning.

The Rolling Rock "33" has baffled beer lovers for generations, and accordingly has become the stuff of barroom legend. I have letters claiming that the number has something to do with a satanic ritual, that it was the age of Christ when he died, even that it signifies the number of glass-lined tanks in the Latrobe plant.

Tres bizarre, but if M. Tito is to be believed, not quite as bizarre as the truth.

[toopers]

18. Not that this means anything or is related . . .

but isn't "33" related to the Freemasons. Again, I am not really suggesting anything because alcohol and life as a freemason may not be congruent, but I'm just throwing that out there.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

29. Bingo...

... the "33" on Rolling Rock bottles is due to a manufacturing error in the first run of bottles.

Rolling Rock is the only beer I buy for sipping at home. I wonder if AB is going to to use glass lined hardware for brewing. I guess I'll have to look for something new to drink.

Several people I know (including my ex) break out in rashes from drinking AB beers.

[warrens]

4. They're buying Goose Island too

Chicago mainstream micro-brew. The Tribune reported it yesterday, but no official announcement yet.

[maxrandb]

6. It's the "Wal-martification" of Beer

Isn't anything sacred in this country anymore?????

[sendero]

7. One scared-water maker buys another..

... who cares :)

[Freddie Stubbs]

8. Beer drinkers care...

As long as Yuengling stays independent I will be happy.

[Ravenseye]

10. A friend of mine worked at the brewery and told me

She said it was a big secret, but after she quit she told me it was because their recipe included using 33 potatoes per 'batch' for flavoring purposes. No idea how valid that is, nor have I ever seen or heard that anywhere else.

[maxrandb]

13. See my post above

Trying to decipher what the "33" stands for sounds like a great drinking game.

[leveymg]

11. Had a RR bottle cap in the horn center of my '73 Plymouth Duster

Fit perfectly. Just a High School memory.

Never could stomach Bud, but liked the horses.

That car's probably still chugging around Connecticut, somewhere.

[trotsky]

12. Never cared for Rolling Rock myself.

But Bud and its assortment of pisswater variants are disgusting.

It was a sad day too when Miller bought up one of Wisconsin's great brewers, Leinenkugel's.

[maxrandb]

15. Rolling Rock is/was a good cheap beer

and you could have hours of fun making up stories about where the "33" came from.

Spent many a summer on the banks of the Olentangy River sipping Rolling Rock and drowning worms.

[sendero]

23. Well...

... when you are drowning worms, it doesn't matter too much which beer you are drinking, you're bound to have a relaxing time :)

[sofa king]

26. That was a long time ago.

Up to the early 1980s RR was cheap swill, directly competing with the college-sauce that G. Heileman sold. Then in about 1985 or so Latrobe Brewing had a brilliant idea: why not just raise the price and market it as an upscale beer?

So RR went from cans to bottles, and from $2 a six-pack to $4 a six-pack, all without changing the beer at all.

Brilliant!

[bunkerbuster1]

36. Fond memories of live-music dives

RR was a brand I'd never buy to drink at home, but always seemed perfect to accompany a slightly out-of-tune garage band with heart.

Per Frank Zappa: "after a couple of quarts of beer, the intonation would not offend the ear."

Plus, of course, the bottle just looks cool, and matches most any ensemble.

[FSogol]

14. The true story on the 33

http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_044.html

[Botany]

17. The 33

Is the # of words on the back of the bottle.

From the glass lined tanks of old Latrobe
We tender this premium beer ...

Guess i will add R & R with Molson's as beers to skip.

[wryter2000]

19. I checked out Boston Beer Company stock the other day

They make Samuel Adams, and all their (very modest) political contributions go to Dems. They're a blue company. The stock was about $27/share. I think I'll buy some stock and make them my beer. (Except for when I visit the Pyramid brewery in Berkeley.)

[no name no slogan]

24. They're distributed (and partly owned) by Miller

Have been for quite some time, actually.

[wryter2000]

33. Hmmm

Thanks for the information. Buy Blue lists them as a blue company.

Miller's red.

[TomInTib]

20. RR just changed hands from one 'giant corporation' to another.

InBev SA is no mom-and-pop operation.

[Wheres The Beef]

32. Thats what I saw too,

This isn't a big corporate buyout of a little guy.
From Inbev's website:

About InBev
InBev is a publicly traded company (Euronext: INB) based in Leuven, Belgium. The company's origins date back to 1366, and today it is the leading global brewer by volume. InBev’s strategy is to strengthen its local platforms by building significant positions in the world's major beer markets through organic growth, world-class efficiency, targeted external growth, and by putting consumers first. InBev has a portfolio of more than 200 brands, including Stella Artois®, Brahma®, Beck’s®, Leffe® and Skol® - the third-largest selling beer brand in the world. InBev employs some 77,000 people, running operations in over 30 countries across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific. In 2005, InBev realized 11.7 billion euro revenue.
For further information visit www.inbev.com

[Shakespeare]

21. Moral of the story: Support your local microwbrew(s)!

I can't even remember the last time I drank the mass-produced crap. Bleah.

[trotsky]

22. Amen to that!

:toast:

[rocktivity]

40. At a microbrew bar in Hoboken NJ

I looked at the wall full of beer vats and asked, "Which of these would a Bass Ale drinker be most likely to enjoy?" Without a second's hesitation, the bartender went directly to one of the vats and poured me a sample. Now, Bass is my absolute favorite on-tap beer, but that microbrew made it taste like--well, BUDWIESER!!!

:headbang:
rocknation

[Mist]

25. How depressing--back in the day, when I spent every Fri.nite and

Sat. clubbing, Rolling Rock was my beer. Lots of memories! And Budweiser always tasted weird to me.

[americanstranger]

27. My wife drinks Rolling Rock

because it's a 'vegetarian' beer. She is sad today, because she's sure that A-B is going to screw with the recipe.

- AS

[onehandle]

28. I don't drink American Beer.

While traveling I'll try micro-brews at the bars they are made at now and then.

Otherwise, it's in the bottle, and not American.

[Dulcinea]

34. NO!

Rolling Rock is the only domestic beer I really like!! They BETTER NOT mess with the recipe & make it taste like Budweiser! I HATE BUDWEISER!!

:cry:

[Sivafae]

38. Suck n/t

[Hardrada]

41. I remember a wonderful imported beer named Loewenbrau but

it was bought or began to be brewed in the US and all you could get here was the US version and it was much inferior. Does anyone remember that travesty and which US brewery was responsible??

[harpboy_ak]

42. They own Red Hook in Seattle, too

The amazing thing to me is that my hometown now-too-big-to-be-a-microbrewery outsells Red Hook on the tavern pumps of Seattle: Alaskan Amber. A small Alaskan brewery up against the marketing might of BudHook beats them on their own turf. I love it.

[hexola]

44. Isnt the RR brewery totally automated?

There was good PBS? special about PA Breweries...

Once decent domestic swill - hard to get a good Rock anymore...

Lots of other good PA breweries though...!