Rolling Rock
Rolling Rock
The story of Rolling Rock begins in 1893, when the Latrobe Brewing Company was founded in the small town of Latrobe at the foot of the Allegheny Mountains in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, around 34 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. After being forced to close during Prohibition, the brewery was reopened in 1933 by the Tito family brothers, and six years later, in 1939, they brought the Rolling Rock brand to market – named after the smooth-pebbled streams of the region, whose pure mountain water was used to brew the beer. The unmistakable slender green long-neck bottle and the mysterious printed number «33» – about whose meaning numerous theories circulate to this day, from the 33 words of the quality statement on the label to the year Prohibition was repealed – made Rolling Rock one of the most recognisable beers in American brewing history from very early on.
Production of Rolling Rock reached its peak in 1974 on the beer's 35th anniversary at 720,000 barrels, and the brand was in the 1970s as inseparably linked with Latrobe as the Pittsburgh Steelers were with their home city. In 1985 the Tito family sold the company, as production had fallen to around 450,000 barrels and two labour disputes had shaken the business. After several changes of ownership, Anheuser-Busch acquired the brand in 2006 for 82 million US dollars and relocated production from Latrobe to Newark, New Jersey – a move that was felt as a deep cultural loss in the home community and cost hundreds of jobs. Today Rolling Rock is part of the world's largest brewing group Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Rolling Rock Extra Pale is a classic American pale lager at 4.4% ABV that with its characteristically pale, golden-yellow colour, its light, clean and crisp fresh flavour profile of barley malt, rice and mountain water, its subtle and restrained hop bitterness and its smooth, refreshing finish has been delivering on the promise of its green bottle – «from the mountain streams to you» – in an uncomplicated and enjoyable way for over 85 years. As one of the most culturally significant and nostalgic beers of Pennsylvania, Rolling Rock stands to this day as a living symbol of the unmistakable working-class spirit of the American West and the grounded, honest beer culture of a region that never regarded its beer as a luxury item but as an indispensable part of everyday life.