Posted on 05/19/2006 8:12:55 AM PDT by evets
Anheuser-Busch Cos., which brews Budweiser and Bud Light, said Friday it bought the Rolling Rock beer brand from InBev USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Belgian-Brazilian brewer InBev SA, for $82 million.
Under the agreement announced by the two companies, Anheuser-Busch will use the brand to expand its portfolio of products and begin brewing Rolling Rock and Rock Green Light in August.
Meanwhile, InBev said it will sell its brewery in Latrobe, Pa., to focus its U.S. business on imported beers and is currently in discussion with potential buyers.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
The other part of the secret is rice from Arkansas.
http://www.snopes.com/business/hidden/rolling.asp
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which is not entirely coterminous with the REAL explanation, is that 33 signifies two things: the year Prohibition was repealed (1933), and the number of words in the legend printed above the number on cans and returnable bottles.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.
Went to college in WI - Leinie's was probably part of the decision making process, now that I think of it.
I may have had a warm Leinie, but never a bad one!
Grab yourself some Huber Bock quick, before Miller or AB ruin it too!
Despite its cult-like following, Rolling-Rock is a mediocre beer at best, certainly better than anything from the beer hacks at AB and MBC, but quite a few notches below Shiner Boch. I only wish we could get Shiner Boch here in the Northeast.
It is a great ultra lite beer, but also try Miclobe Ultra amber. It has taste as well.
Just Damn.
So much for good, cheap beer.
33 stands for 33 words on the back of the bottle!
Nothing better than walking into my local watering hole and responding to the waitress; 'Rock Me!'
I'm still so bummed....sigh...
'El Presidente' is good stuff too, when you're visiting the FL Keys...
It may very well be a mason plot. Last night the dish carried a special on the freemasons. It turns out one of their key guys wore an apron-like thingie with "33" written on it. I immediately thought of the bottle of RR.
Every beer has its place. Bud is good for making beer can chicken, or mowing the yard. Personally, I like RR and RR Lite. And I really like Yueng. Great value.
Neither of these is the one brewed with "Pure Rocky Mountain-Goat Water"
Yup!
Send him to school. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I loved the stuff. Here in the Midwest, it was always a guess as to what quality you might get. For some reason, it always seemed to me that Rolling Rock went "bad" more quickly than any other beer on the market.
*sigh*
"From the glass lined tanks of Old Latrobe..."
Beauty!
"Despite its cult-like following, Rolling-Rock is a mediocre beer at best, certainly better than anything from the beer hacks at AB and MBC, but quite a few notches below Shiner Boch."
I agree. I do like it but it's no Shiner.
Yuengling is my absolute favorite beer!! But it's not sold in Ohio, so I get my in-laws (who live 3 miles from the Penn border) to buy me a case at a time. I hope Yuengling buys up the RR brewery and increases its capacity.
Budweiser....
Like sex in a canoe...
f**king close to water!
Western PA Ping.
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