Rolling Rock

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Rolling Rock is a brand of beer brewed in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, forty miles southeast of Pittsburgh, by the Latrobe Brewing Company, which is owned by Labatt USA.

It is distinctive in several ways. It is one of the few mass-market brands of beer distributed in green glass bottles with painted, rather than printed labels. It has a rather strong taste for a light-colored, light-bodied beer; this is apparently due to the strain of yeast and the variety of hops used in the brewing process. The company stresses that it is brewed in "glass-lined tanks".

Rolling Rock is considered to be something of a premium beer and has benefited greatly from the trend toward the consumption of higher-quality alcoholic beverages that has been developing in the United States since the 1970s. Rolling Rock is generally considered a "starter" beer by beer enthusiasts; while perceived as not being as flavorful as other beers, it is more flavorful than the traditional American lager style brewed by the "big three" (Anheuser-Busch, SABMiller and Coors).

The term pony bottle is derived from the horse on the bottle, and refers to the smaller sized 7 ounce bottle. Although the 12 ounce bottles have moved to a screw-off cap, the "ponies" retain their traditional pop-top. Some pony bottles have paper, rather than painted, labels.

The number 33 on the bottle is a mystery that is open to speculation. The most widely accepted explanation is that prohibition was repealed in 1933, but according to James L. Tito, once CEO of Latrobe Brewing, the 33 signifies the thirty-three words in their slogan, which are: "Rolling Rock From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." An executive wrote the number of words in the slogan to indicate how much space it would take on the bottle and that draft was sent to the printer. Therefore their first batch of bottles had the number 33 imprinted on them and during the depression there was no reason to throw away perfectly good merchandise. This tradition is held in place by the company itself: even as the wording of the labels changes over the years (the new wording on low-carb Rock Green Light labels, for example, discussing the nutritional information), the main paragraphs are carefully structured to retain a length of 33 words. It is also speculated that the "33" indicates the temperature at which Rolling Rock has its best taste. Still there are more theories that the “33” is representative of its ingredients: water, malt, rice, hops, corn, brewer’s yeast; also, it is believed that the number designates that Rolling Rock was Latrobe Brewing’s 33rd different recipe for beer.

The words from the labels of Rolling Rock beer were rearranged into a comic "poem" by comedian Demetri Martin, entitled "All of the Words on a Bottle of Rolling Rock Beer in a Different Order". <ref>Martin, Demetri. "All of the Words on a Bottle of Rolling Rock Beer in a Different Order" Slate.com 26 May 2004.</ref>

Notes

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External links

• Rolling Rock official website
• Why is there a 33 on Rolling Rock beer labels?sv:Rolling Rock