Anybody Wanna Buy Rolling Rock? Again?
Three years ago, the Belgian brewing company that just acquired Anheuser-Busch, InBev, sold Rolling Rock to AB. Now they've got it back again... and want to sell it. Anyone looking for a beer brand?
From Marketwatch:
InBev, whose brands include Stella Artois, wants to sell assets to repay debt accrued after it bought Anheuser-Busch for about $52 billion last fall to form the world's largest beer maker by sales, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.
Anyone?
Anheuser-Busch InBev considers sale of Rolling Rock: report [Marketwatch]
(Photo:MelB)
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Comments:
/Beer Snob ~ On
Rolling Rock isn't a bad beer. But that's just it. It isn't a good beer. Its like Southpaw. Drink it for effect, not for taste.
/Beer Snob ~ Off
@Brawndo_The_Thirst_Mutliator: /Lumbergh on: Ummm, yeahh.... i'm going to have to disagree with you there....
/Lumbergh off
Whenever I hear a non-beer-drinker say they don't drink beer because it tastes like p|ss, I just assume all they've ever drank is Rolling Rock.
Rolling Rock is swill. No thanks.
I went to college in Latrobe for a time, and on more than one occasion saw the glass lined tanks of Old Latrobe. Except for meeting Mr. Rogers, that was the second best thing to happen to me in Latrobe.
The first time I went to a bar, Rolling Rock was what I drank, so I'll always have a soft spot for it. But I've always found it to be quite a different kind of beer than the others near it on the price/taste curve, and it doesn't work with every situation.
Maybe I'll go buy a case today. It's been a while since I've had one.
Life's too short for bad beer.
Rolling Rock was one of the better cheap beers, and I appreciated that it was local (being in Pittsburgh).
I haven't bought any since they started brewing it in New Jersey instead of Old Latrobe. Maybe Latrobe Brewing can get it back...
I wonder if I still have my old t-shirt from Richter's in New Haven? "No Bud. Rock." Seems somehow appropriate.
Rolling rock is the best of the cheap beer genre.
I like Rolling Rock. I hope it stays in business.
@WhiteGuyOnWebCam_GitEmSteveDave: And then Rolling Rock left Latrobe. Now the old brewery makes Sam Adams!
I enjoy rolling rock
I just want to see Yuengling sold in Chicago. /gripe
We should purchase it on behalf of the Angry Video Game Nerd. It's definitely his drink of choice. He uses it to calm his nerves while ranting.
Can we buy RR with the tip jar money?
Take it from someone who had swilled every brand out there ,cheap and expensive,imported and domestic- Rolling Rock is a GREAT beer for the money.It's a typical American pale lager- Light,crisp and drinkable without that metallic edge that the cheaper domestic beers have.
IMHO,A-B bought the brand to kill a competitor.They never really did anything with it and it seems harder to find now,when they should have made room in every point of sale next to their established brands.
I hope that it survives all of this corporate shuck and jive and doesn't get killed by indiffrence.
First I think Budweiser is not worth 52 Billion. I have a couple of bridges to sell Inbev if they would only return my phone calls!
Rolling Rock is good but not worth the purchase.
I learned to drink beer from my next-door neighbor's pony bottles of RR - when I was 10 and helping him cut the grass.
Stella is no better than RR, but seems to have enchanted the fixie-riding, American Spirit-smoking hipsters.
Nah. I got equity in Buzz Beer already.
i thought it was a great light (on taste) beer if you didn't want something to overwhelm your palette. Or if you were case racing or something that required a lot of drinking, it always seemed easier to go down.
That was in college, in PA, where it was made
then it moved to Newark, NJ (ironically i moved to NJ too).
They "quoted" the pledge on the back saying it was made from mountain spring water in Latrobe, and it started to taste like piss.
Okay. Penn Stater defending old Rolling Rock here.
Beer is a perishable product. When it was only made in Latrobe all y'all got was probably months old.
For Penn State homecoming the bars would go through so much that they would get deliveries of fresh, pony cases within a day or two of bottling.
Was RR ever a super high quality beer? Hells to the no. But when it was fresh, man, nothing could beat it.
@Underpants Gnome: /Lumbergh on: So yeah. I'm going need you to come in on Saturday and Sunday. For your beer education class. Ummmm, yeeeeah."
RR is the step up from Naty Lite for college kids. Any beer drinker with true sophistication generally doesn't drink swill. Swill includes (Pabst, RR, Southpaw, Naty "Everthing", MOST (not all) American beer (sadly)) If you can buy a bottle of beer for less than a bottled water, you dear sir, are fucking up.
it sounds like they're playing a BIG game of "hot potato"
I used to drink RR in college when I had a few extra bucks because it cost slightly more than Natty Light, and it was in bottles which was always nice. Now that I can afford it, I haven't touched Bud Light, Natty Light, RR, Pabst, Miller Lite, Mickeys, the Beast, or any other crap they try to pass off as beer. I either drink my homebrew IPA, or it's something from Deschutes, Pyramid, Hale's, Full Sail, or Red Hook.
Rolling Rock was never a beer with a lot of flavor, but I still liked it. Once Anheuser-Busch took it over, I noticed a definite change in taste. What little flavor it had went away.
They turned it into Bud Light in a green bottle. I heard the Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams) bought the old Latrobe plant. Maybe they will buy Rolling Rock.
Huh. I never knew than InBev had owned Rolling Rock. What pisses me off is to see "Latrobe Brewing Co., Saint Louis, Missouri" on the bottles. Such an insult.
@Kaellorian: Yes yes yes. Please bring it to Ohio, too. Unfortunately, Dick Yuengling has stated that he has no plans to expand for quite a long time. The company just entered West Virginia and doesn't seem like it is interested in going through another marketing blitz in a foreign territory.
@WhiteGuyOnWebCam_GitEmSteveDave: whoa, how did i not know rolling rock was made there? i live like 20 mins from latrobe!
also, guessing you went to saint vincent's?
I'm a beer snob too, but in my book, nothing relieves the heat of standing around a scorching fire in a grill during a high-nineties American midwest heatwave more effectively than a cold Rolling Rock or four.
I've tried doing this with Budweiser, since that was my dad's old brew of choice. Blech. Same with Busch. They may be a brewing juggernaut; apparently for reasons other than the taste of their product.
Frankly, if they have even a lick of originality, InBev ought to be able to capitalize on a brand that has less negative brand exposure than Busch and Bud, and some quaint local history as a bonus. It's that lick of originality part that's probably dogging them (can everyone say "American Ale?").
I like Rolling Rock, I always have and I always will.
Rolling Rock is my beer of choice. I've been driking it proudly for years. Inexpensive, yet delicious. Plus, I know exactly how many it takes before judgement is impaired.
I remember going bowling one night when the brewery in Latrobe was shutting down. I brought in a case of Rolling Rock, as the lanes were BYOB. Fantastic idea, but I digress. Just so happens, a group of about 25 bowlers kept watching me drink with a smile on their faces. Gotta admit - that creeped me out - until I was informed that they worked at the brewery and made the beer I was drinking. I walked over and thanked each of them personally for the service they provided our community.
I miss that.
@Brawndo_The_Thirst_Mutliator: i assume you mean crappy bud light and the like when you refer to "American beer". because American mircobreweries have been pumping out some quality beer for a long time. of course if you want the really good micros, you need to head to either the state of wisconsin or the city of portland, oregon. breweries in those two locales clean up at beer competitions each year.
@T Axel Jones: I'll half-agree with you there. Very filling but a nice taste. Haven't tried the light version though.
Come to think of it, I still have 9/12 of a case of Natty Light in my trunk. I am so freaking glad I like cheap beer.
@stre:
PDX FTW! We love our beer here, and in NW Portland you can just about throw a rock from one brewery to the next (not that you'd throw rocks at breweries).
@Brawndo_The_Thirst_Mutliator: Hey now. the PBR is getting back to it's old school brew. sure it ain't the best in the world, but it's gotta be one of the best yellow, lightish, american beers.
@thnkwhatyouthnk: Whoops! My bad! No, I do not, in fact, enjoy piss. I think Rolling Rock tastes good, but Rolling Rock Light, on the other hand can be argued as a piss flavor.
@zandar: "I'm a beer snob too, but in my book, nothing relieves the heat of standing around a scorching fire in a grill during a high-nineties American midwest heatwave more effectively than a cold Rolling Rock or four." I wholeheartedly agree.
Black Label - it's has all the bitterness of a Canadian beer with the alcohol content of an American... and it's often cheaper in bottles than Milwaukee's Best (known as "beast" to insiders) is in cans.
Sure, I'll take it. I've got..let's see... $22.79. That should about do it.