Posted on 07/27/2006 4:55:56 AM PDT by Dane
Last Call For Rolling Rock Beer No Longer Brewed In Latrobe
POSTED: 2:21 pm EDT July 26, 2006 UPDATED: 2:49 pm EDT July 26, 2006
LATROBE, Pa. -- Wednesday marked the last day Rolling Rock will be brewed and bottled at Latrobe Brewing Company.
The official last day for workers will be Monday.
A deal was put in place to allow Rolling Rock workers to keep their jobs.
The union approved an agreement with City Brewing on Sunday.
The Wisconsin-based company will buy the Latrobe Brewery from In-Bev USA.
The Rolling Rock beer brand was sold to Anheuser-Busch.
Production of the beer will move to Newark, N.J.
I often wondered if the number "33" printed on the bottles indicated a connection with Ba Muoi Ba ("33"), the South Vietnamese beer that our soldiers over there drank, and which is still brewed in Vietnam, but this is apparently not the case.
Rolling Rock is hard to find here in California, so i'll hve to grab a few bottles before it disappears altogether.
Take your pick:
Two of the brothers flipped a coin to determine whose racehorse would be featured on the label – Number 33 won.
There are 33 words in the Rolling Rock pledge: “ROLLING ROCK From the glass lined tanks of OLD LATROBE We tender this premium beer for your enjoyment, as a tribute to your good taste It comes from the mountain springs to you.”
There are 33 letters in the listed ingredients: “water, malt, rice, hops, corn, brewer’s yeast”.
Rolling Rock is brewed at 33 degrees Fahrenheit.
Latrobe Brewing had 33 recipes for brewing beer – Rolling Rock was number 33.
The 18th Amendment was repealed in 1933, ending Prohibition.
Rolling Rock is to be served at 33 degrees Fahrenheit.
The brothers were trying to come up with a slogan for their signature beer. One of the brothers picked the current “pledge” and scribbled a “33” on it to indicate the word-count. It was sent to press, and the printers thought the 33 was part of the slogan. By the time the error was caught, it was too costly to change, so they kept it as part of the “mystery.”
There are are a myriad of theories of the "33" on Rolling Rock bottles, from the year prohibition ended to the actual age of Christ when he died.
I came to like Stroh's when I attended the Republican National Convention in Detroit in 1980. Shortly afterwards, I read that it was purchased by one of the major brewing companies, so I figured that it would eventually go downhill.
33 is how many I could get through on a good weekend in college.
Mystery solved.
Pop-stop. LOL. That's right it's pop there not soda.
LOL about the tea thing too. (I do love my Sweet tea when in the south.)
Alas, my days of carousing and drinking and hangovers are over - a glass or two of champagne is about as far as you'll get me these days.
Sign me - feeling my age not my oats.
Cheers - Dinah
That's part of the problem. It loses it's mystique. It just becomes another A-B brand, even if they truck in the water from Latrobe to Newark, NJ, and follow the recipie, word by word.
Mystery solved.
Was that pony's or regular bottles(just kidding) :)
The "33" printed on Rolling Rock bottles, will always be like "the chicken or the egg" arguement. :)
We used to call them Gennie Screamers, 'cause you'll be screamin' the next morning! Remember those little bottles they used to come in? My mom still drinks Genny. And if she doesn't finish one, she'll just put it back in the fridge for later! yuck!!
The funny part about all this is the fact that RR was actually owned by Labatt, which is actually owned by Interbev, a worldwide brewing conglomerate bigger than A-B.
And everyone thinks it's a cute little regional brewery. Where was all the complaining when Interbev owned it?
LOL.
I'm screaming now as I read that!!!!
And your mom sounds like someone I want to meet!
What a woman!
That's favorite
Tom Wahl's A&W ROOT BEER! I would rather have a good RB float, thanks, to wash down those white hots. I like them more than any alky beer or ale.
As for small world note: my brother went to East Carolina U. Pulling alongside another destroyer in Hong Kong harbor in 1967, I started a conversation on the other ship, with a guy WHO WAS MY BROTHER'S ROOM MATE!
In lima, I also enjoyed the benefit of 7 day banking at the branch in the grocery across the street! I loved the beauty of the area, but those damn winters are just too much.
The weekend we arrived in 1977, there was a storm that left us with over 4 feet of snow, by saturday night. Of course, we got up on sunday and drove to church on cleared roads. The problem came into my VW camper bus, though. The windows had frost inside, from our breath. It took me two weeks to get a gas heater installed.
I am almost in heaven now. West-by-God-Virginia! Now, how DO we get rid of Sheets?
And everyone thinks it's a cute little regional brewery. Where was all the complaining when Interbev owned it?
You are correct, Labatt's did take over Rolling Rock for a while.
They didn't though close the brewery which is still essentially rural America and move the operations and brewing of a beloved beer, to what 90% of Americans consider an armpit of America, Newark, NJ.
AB would have less PR problems if they had moved Rolling Rock to their Columbus, OH, plant.
Ohio, middle America, etc.etc.
Come on now; the water makes all the difference. :)-
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