Hello Fieldthistle,

If you do make it up that way, the distributer is called "Westy’s Beer Dist" it’s located just off rt15 in Camp Hill, Pa.

Westy’s seems to be the most southern distributer, although I’ve heard that a place in Shrewberry, (sp) Pa., just over the Md. border also sells Straub.

Grew up drinking Straub, have toured the brewery in St, Mary’s, Pa….home of the "Eternal" Tap I might add! Wasn’t aware that the ever "exported" to Va.!

I forgot to mention, Straub has no preservatives, no added sugars and no salt…..just beer.

Hello All,
rebeltruce, Straub was also a local favorite here in Rockingham Co., Va. back in the sixties and seventies.
I understand there is still a Staub brewery in Pa., once owned by the family, but may have been sold
in the last few years, (maybe a decade). We still have Rolling Rock, but I miss the Straub. I might have to make
a trip up there as you do.
Take Care,
Fieldthistle

Another icon of my fading youth gone

Rolling Rock will be missed by allot of Pa beer drinkers. It wasn’t about the taste or how it stood up to the micro brews….it was beacause it was brewed in Pa., it was ours.

Ice cold on a hot summer day….I would put it up against any beer out there. Nothing more refreshing in my opinion.

I live in Va. now and make a trip once a month to Pa. to pick up a couple cases of my favorite Pennsylvania beer, Straub. I had a long conversation with the owner of the distributer last trip about the Rolling Rock operation being bought and moved to NJ. He says that he’s noticed a significant increase in his Staub sales. Seems the Pa residents won’t buy Rolling Rock when it’s available again, and I don’t blame them.

For those of you who loved Rolling Rock, give Straub a try. Problem is it’s availability is very limited.

quote:

Originally posted by jesskidden

quote:

Originally posted by MikeSh

RR was bought out by Budweiser and they will be shutting down the Latrobe, Pa. brewery. Home to RR since 1938 I think it was. Going to be brewed in NJ[:p]

Make fun of Anheuser Busch all you want, but there’s no reason for the dig at New Jersey- a state with a rich brewing history, and a list of beers that surpasses those of just about any other US city or state.
Ballantine XXX Ale, Ballantine India Pale Ale, Ballantine Burton Ale (aged for 10-20 *years* before bottling), Ballantine Porter, Bock and Stout, Krueger Old Surrey Porter, Trommers All Malt Beer, McSorley’s Ale, etc. As soon as Latrobe (or your town) can match that line-up, THEN you can ridicule New Jersey’s brewing history. [:D]

Amen. As much as I bemoan the loss of RR (a brew I never cared much about except for the fact that it was one of the few notBuds you could find at parties), I welcome AB’s decision to move the brew to NJ (Newark? AB has a big brewery near the airport). Jersey’s manufacturing economy is under siege–over the past few years, industry has been bailing out of Jersey and leaving unemployment and huge property tax gaps in the wake. Even though I drink anything but Bud, I’m glad to see that AB has maintained its commitment to stay in Jersey, and I hope that Latrobe can keep its brewery open and operating under new ownership.

Charlie (a Jersey boy and proud of it)

Charlie

quote:

Originally posted by Davydd

I do know that in the late 60s I did a lot of research on breweries in contemplating designing one for my senior architectural thesis and was alarmed at the rate of closings that were going on at that time and the growth of A-B and Millers.

Actually, Miller’s growth didn’t happen until they were bought by Philip Morris in the 70’s and had all that cigarette money and advertising know-how behind it- back in the late 60’s it was still A-B(15 million barrels), Schlitz & Pabst (both around 10 mil.) as the "Big 3". Miller sold less than half that (4.5 million barrels) and was actually smaller than now-gone brewers like Carling and Schaefer and barely edging out a regional like Olympia. (For the record, Coors, still regional at the time, was at 4.6 million barrels).

Ten years later, it was A-B (36 mil.) Miller (24) and Schlitz (22), Pabst had already started to slide down (16) but was still #4, outselling #5 Coors’s 12.8 million barrels.

Davydd,
Always know your audience!![;)]

There was an interesting show on the History channel on Brewing. I think the commentator said there were only 60 breweries in the United States in 1983 and over 2,000 now thanks to the growing popularity of craft beers, microbrews, brewpubs, etc. I do know that in the late 60s I did a lot of research on breweries in contemplating designing one for my senior architectural thesis and was alarmed at the rate of closings that were going on at that time and the growth of A-B and Millers. So, I doubt Rolling Rock will be missed if the brand is discontinued. If you remember back in the 70s and early 80s there was not much of a variety in beers. Basically all you could get was an Americanized Lager and quality was not as good as today. They consolidated, took the taste out of beer, lightened it up and made it an acceptable social drink or really a non-drink. Then the revolution began with crafts and microbrews. People wanted better.

I drank the 3.2 of the 60s in Cincinnati. Boy did that town serve a lot of swill. But I drank it anyway. [:D]

ps. I didn’t design a brewery. A student a year ahead of me attempted it and I found out two professors were god-fearing teetotalers. No matter how good the design you would flunk. I designed a brick plant instead. [:)]

Actually, RR would be the easiest to pick out. I’d agree that in a bar with untrained patrons, a 50% success rate would be about right. For myself, Bud and Miller are about as similar as frankfurters and bratwursts. They are basically the same shape.

Calm down, folks, and drink what you like.

The point roadrash is making, however, has some validity as there is a huge world of taste variations in beer styles beyond the relatively minor differences in the various American Macro Lager brands.

Those who enjoy such styles as Double IPAs, Wee Heavies, Belgian Strong Dark Ales and Russian Imperial Stouts know what I am talking about.

quote:

Originally posted by Poverty Pete

If you don’t believe I can taste the difference between Rolling Rock, Bud, Miller and Coors, I’d happily make a wager with you for any amount of money of your choosing. You would lose. Marketing is NOT the only distinction between these brews.

Pete, I’m not arguing with you, but in informal blind taste tests in our local bar, hardcore Miller or Bud drinkers got them wrong as often as right. Ditto with Bud Light or Miller Lite. I suspect Coors might be easy to pick out, and I’ve only tried a RR once, so I’d get that one wrong myself for sure.

If you don’t believe I can taste the difference between Rolling Rock, Bud, Miller and Coors, I’d happily make a wager with you for any amount of money of your choosing. You would lose. Marketing is NOT the only distinction between these brews.

quote:

Originally posted by roadrash

People that like RR, for the most part, don’t know much about beer or what a good beer is supposed to be.

Gosh, nice of you to make assumptions about people you don’t know.

Me, I like Rolling Rock. I also drink Smithwick’s, Harp, several different local microbrews, Sierra Nevada’s various incarnations, and the occasional Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Just because someone likes a lighter beer doesn’t automatically make them ignorant of other beers.

People that like RR, for the most part, don’t know much about beer or what a good beer is supposed to be. There are plenty of them – they like their beers cold and basically tasteless, and RR is right down the middle of that genre. Frankly, there is so little difference between all of these swill beers that I find it impossible to believe that their afficionados really "taste" any differences between them – the differences are strictly in marketing, packaging and distribution. If that’s all you want in your beer, well then Rolling Rock may well have been and still be the brand for you.

Me? I’ll have a REAL pilsner – Pilsner Urquell or Czechvar, thanks – or, better yet, one of my own homebrewed pils.

quote:

Originally posted by brentk

You forgot the best brewery in NJ – Heavyweight – whose recent demise is truly something to mourn.

Yeah, you’re right- in the reply I composed in my head while driving around thinking about the NJ dig, I DID refer back to your mention of Heavyweight but by the time I got home and wrote it up, the reference was forgotten.

Altho’ Heavyweight seems more like a suicide -owner just got bored? When the rumor started about the closing I’d check the website and his blog and never saw a mention of the closing (even NOW, you’ve got to read closely to figure it out) or WHY he closed. In some ways, it always seemed that Heavyweight was more of a NYC or Phila. brewery that happened to be located in NJ, since most of his "events" were in those cities. (More of a problem with the poor draft beer scene in NJ that with Tom’s attitude, tho’.) Heck, there were more draft outlets in Maryland than in NJ listed on his website.

I wasn’t crazy about a few of his beers and his distribution was spotty (maybe because he had so many beers, in several different packages) but I will miss the yearly search for new "Old Salty" and beers like Cinderbock, Stickenjab and, of course, Perkuno’s Hammer.

I would have liked to see his attempt at a classic IPA or AIPA or a pilsner (altho’ he, admittedly, kind of boxed himself in with the "Heavyweight" name).

quote:

Originally posted by brentk

This reminds me of the day Jim Croce and Gram Parsons died. The vast majority of people I know mourned Jim Croce but, in my opinion, Gram Parsons was the greater loss to music.

Was it the SAME day? I don’t recall exactly. Certainly, I do recall hearing about Croce immediately (probably on TV- he was an AM hit maker, after all) but, in those pre-internet days, I didn’t hear about Parson’s death until I read the headline on a Rolling Stone magazine (10/25/73), a drawing of Gene Autry on the cover, one day- "The Mysterious Death of Gram Parsons"- I showed the mag to my girl friend as we stood in the store- "Whoa, look at this!" "Oh," she said, "I don’t think they mean he’s really DEAD, they just don’t like the new album or something…"

I’d already given up on FM radio by that time, so don’t know if they mentioned it on the ‘NEW or the other NYC metro area rock stations (I doubt that’d they ever PLAYED any Parsons).

Speaking of rock star deaths in the 70’s, the one I’ll always remember (besides Hendrix-then-Joplin a few weeks later my first month in college) is my little sister and her friends getting upset one day when they thought they heard about the death of one of the Osmond Brothers… turns out it was an ALLMAN Brother who’d crashed his bike. The little girls were happy- *I* grabbed a beer (maybe a Ballantine Ale, to bring it back on subject) and put on LAYLA and LIVE AT FILMORE EAST…