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


wrote:
The recent purchase of the Rolling Rock beer brand by megabrewer
Anheuser-Busch has been a topic of conversation here a couple of times,
so I thought that this tribute to the brewery would be of interest. I
find that the song is especially well-done (these things are usually
cringe-worthy to the extreme, since they are related to the song parody,
perhaps the lowest form of humor-hell, even slapstick aficionados
ridicule it). Maybe it's just having the good taste to pick John
Prine's classic song which is on a related subject.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ4Qdcrts2o

It kinda touched me, as did some interviews with the workers I found
last night (sorry, lost the link from a Pittsburgh TV station), maybe
because I lost my factory job awhile back and am still "haunted" by it.
Perhaps the saddest thing for them will probably be seeing the bottles
of RR labeled "Latrobe Brewing Co., St. Louis, MO" on the shelves in
their hometown, a brand they feel they helped build. (If the town's got
any pride, they'll remain on the shelves, too...)

City Brewery (the former flagship brewery of the late, great Heileman
Brewing Co.- which now specializes in energy drinks and contract beers)
bought the brewery, so most of the jobs will be preserved (for awhile,
brewing's a tough industry for that size brewery) but they can't brew
"Rolling Rock", of course. Now, City supposedly makes a clone beer of
it's old brand- LaCrosse Lager is, supposedly the old Old Style recipe.
BUT, they can't even market a clone using the logical name of "Latrobe
Lager" since A-B also bought THAT name, the name of the town. Sure,
it's not unusual in the US brewing industry (Old Milwaukee's made in
North Carolina, Milwaukee's Best is made in California, Milwaukee Beer
used to come from South Jersey, heck even a beer named for the Bohemian
town of Budweis comes from St. Louis g....) but it's got to be
annoying for those workers, especially since the "new" A-B RR still
says, "From the tanks of Old Latrobe..." on the back label.

Note- Was never much of a fan of Rolling Rock or US light lagers in
general (tho' I did use to like the occasional National Premium or
Heileman Special Export)- 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.

One of the saddest things about being a fan of old beer brands (unlike
musicians or authors, say) is that once a beer is gone, it's gone. No
re-issues or reprints, no unreleased material from the vaults...

And, I don't care to hear any cracks about RR's new home of Newark- as
I've said before, when your city can boast of a brewing history that
includes Ballantine Beer, Porter, Brown Stout, Bock, XXX Ale, India Pale
Ale AND Burton Ale (perhaps the greatest pre-micro beer of all) THEN you
can ridicule Newark or New Jersey.