Requiem for the Rolling Rock Brewery

Im not up to speed on all the politics - but I'm happy to say Ive just discovered Rolling Rock - found it in a little off license here in London, England. Being an Aussie I love my lager and this one is top stuff.

Lets hope the takeover doesn't detract from the quality.

Eamonn

snipped-for-privacy@LYC0S.CM wrote:

Seems like I have known the RR from about when I was, well about 45 years ago. Funny how all those other beers disapeared.

greg

Yes, and look at the stable of beer brands Pabst has acquired too. The owners must not have had much of an affinity for Latrobe because they sold that brand to the highest bidder. I think that the demand for american light lager is not what it was and the market really can't support as many medium size brewers making what is very similar beer.

All is not lost though because the many local microbrewers across this country are stepping up and filling the void with a much wider range of fine local beer. Heck we have a range of choices in flavor and style of beer that was unknown to the average guzzler 50, 100, 150 yeras ago.

INBEV owned RR? Never new that but then again didn't drink it much. AB must have made InBev an offer they couldn't refuse. The problem was selling the brewery to InBev. At that point it is no longer a local beer.

I agree. Though there is undoubted pain with these kind of changes, the USA beer landscape for connoisseurs is the best it has ever been. Now if Alpha King ever goes away I will weep, but there are many other IPA's that are wonderful too.

A-B is now the USA importer of many of InBev's beers, including Stella Artois, Hoegaarden, Leffe, and Beck's. That means that InBev now has access to the A-B substantial distribution network. Helluva deal.

For some reason, PBR is always on tap around here. Seems to be some kind of cult beer.

I assume by "case bottles" your talking about the classic longnecked re-usable, returnable, opener needed, deposit bottle ("returnable" and "deposit" meaning different things post-deposit law), aka "export bottle" or "longneck" "tall neck" (man, them things had lots of names, some regional, didn't they)?

I never heard of them being "slightly pasteurized" - since bottled beer usually went through a hot water bath after capping to pasteurize them, I can't imagine that brewers turned down the heat/sped up the line for a different bottle (but, with brewing, anything can happen I suppose). I was interested to read that one of the advantages of the new canning lines some micros are adding is FASTER pasteurization is possible with cans, since they heat up and cool down faster.

I do know that, for me, despite all logic, I always found some beers just tasted "better" out of that bottle (Ballantine Ale & Chesterfield Ale two of the most noted) but I always chalked it up to better protection from the light (thicker glass, stayed in the case), better seal on the cap, less handling and back and forth between refrigerator and room temperature.

It's funny, I miss both the classic deposit bottle AND the stubby throw-away- go figure. (Also, the steinie quart and steinie 12 oz deposit...) I think I'm just getting old and overly nostalgic.

PBR acquired some retro-chic status around 2000.

Tom W

I concur, ever since Killian's was introduced (before Coor's) bought the product name,...I've seen a big change in the quality and diversity of good beers.

Well, I guess this thread I started got a bit hi-jacked- something I expected. I should have put "OT" in the Subject line, since my post wasn't about the *beer* Rolling Rock (as I noted, "Was never much of a fan of Rolling Rock or US light lagers in general... the RR six pack I bought when the sale was announced this summer was probably my first in 20 years- but I am a fan of the old breweries (all but gone) and of good paying industrial jobs.")

Yeah, there are lots of good beer choices in the US, most better than the light lager that was Rolling Rock. My post was about the loss of a brand name (and the town's name) associated with a small city and the potential loss of more good industrial jobs in the US. Is that a "natural" part of capitalism? - yeah. But, so are traffic accidents a part of life in the US. When your friend's daughter is killed in a car wreck, do you say, "Well, that's the way it goes. Plus, you have another daughter, anyway, and she's better looking!"

Killians *before* Coors? In the US? The George Killian Lett Brewery in Ireland closed in the 1950's and was contract-brewed in France by Pelforth (tho' I never heard of it imported in the US) before Coors also got the rights to brew it (they later changed it from an ale to a lager, however, so the "authenticity" of the already French-Irish beer is in doubt) in the late 70's/early 80's- well after the beginnings of the "beer revolution" had begun with Maytag's purchase of Anchor (mid-60's) and the beginnings of the microbrewery movement in the mid- to late-70's.

I'd say Coors' "Geo. Killian Irish Red Ale/Lager" was more akin to Miller's Lowenbrau- a quick and easy way to jump into "superpremium" segment then dominated by A-B's Michelob brand. (Coors also came out with a Henry Weinhart imitation called "Herman Joseph's" around the same time and, for awhile, was importing Stella Atois.)

LOL

As for when Coors took over, I remember drinking this beer with my oldest brother, back when I was still 17-18 years old ? 1982?. He told me the beer was new and being test marketed in this country, nothing on the bottle said Coor's unlike at a later point in time- but that was many bottles ago :)

Coors introduced it's Geo. Killians Irish Red Ale in 1982, so the timing is right. I don't know what it said on the label at that time, but "dba" ("doing business as") fake brewery names have been used in the industry for decades, especially when a brewery is closed and it's brand(s) is sold. Before the microbrewery boom, very few cities had more than one brewery, so it was usually easy for the knowledgable drinker to figure out who made what (beer can collectors were especially adept at that).

At some point, the feds loosened the rules about "brewery location" on the label, so it's a bit more difficult nowadays. Killian's no doubt said "Golden, CO" on the label, so that would have been enough to make it Coors, altho' they have used "Denver" (where they have a microbrewery) on some beers since then, IIRC. The most well-known dba being used today is probably Miller's "Plank Road Brewery" for some of it's lesser brands. (IIRC, some of the old Falstaff brands listed a PO box on it's labels after they were folded into Pabst by the parent company, S&P. A PO Box? Now THAT is a microbrewery!)

Coors changed the formula, lowered the alcohol content and changed the label to read "Lager" (in very small letters) from "Ale" in 1988. (There was also a George Killian's Irish Brown Ale for a time, too, but I don't remember that at all).

Thanks for the most interesting insights- I have no arguments :)

Here's an interesting development. Coors, of course, is now a multi-national brewer, with the purchase of the Bass breweries in UK (but NOT the Bass brand) and the recent merger with Molson- technically the company is now "MolsonCoors".

The merger with Molson allowed them to close the old Schlitz/Stroh brewery they had in Memphis (which brewed a number of their "other" brands like Zima & Extra Gold) before the Virginia facility had a brewery (which they're in the process of building- previously it only "prepared" [added water to high gravity beer] and packaged beers from Golden), since Molson has several breweries that are close to East Coast markets. AND, it also allows the company to say "IMPORTED" on the label. (Lots of "imports" of international brands in the US are actually only imported across the border- like "Australian" Fosters, "Irish" Guinness Extra Stout, "Japanese" Saporo, etc.) I think some of the Blue Moon brands are already being brewed in Canada and Killians would be a natural.