Say what you want about Rolling Rock beer, but it’s not the same as it ever was. For years, Rolling Rock beer was a staple at bars and liquor stores throughout the northeast. The brewery’s slogan, “same as it ever was”, was intended to signify its long history (Latrobe Brewing being founded in 1896).

And though Latrobe slogged through almost a century, surviving prohibition and the emergence of the mega-brewer brands Bud, Coors, and Miller, the regional brewer’s independence came to an end when it was acquired by Canada’s Labatt in 1987. Labatt, for it’s part, left the brand to it’s own devices and relatively autonomous.

But in the proof to the theorem that there’s always a bigger fish, Labatt itself was swallowed up by Belgian conglomerate Inbev (then called Ambev) in 1995. In May of 2006 Inbev decided to part with the Rolling Rock brand and sold it to Anheuser-Busch, who promptly shut down the historic Latrobe brewery and began brewing the Rolling Rock brands at it’s own facilities. (Beer historians will be pleased to know, however, that Wisconsin’s City Brewery, which operates the equally historic former G. Heileman Brewery, rescued the Latrobe facility and now brews Samuel Adams beer under contract there for the Boston Beer Company.)

If you’ve been following beer news lately, you might have heard that Inbev has made an offer to buy Anheuser-Busch, a proposition that AB finds none too appealing. If it is successful in its bid, Inbev may now end up owning the Rolling Rock brands once again, including a new one introduced under the tutelage of Anheuser-Busch: Rolling Rock Red.

Rolling Rock Red is intended to compete with Irish-style red lagers the likes of Molson-Coors Killian’s. Basically, this is a standard American lager with a dash of caramel malt to add a touch of sweetness and chewy malt character. Available in both familiar green bottles and on draft, the beer should be widely available through AB’s distribution network.

My first taste of Rolling Rock Red came at an Oceanside bar in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. My frosty mug arrived with a minimal head formation and a slightly rusty reddish tint. My first ice cold sip was rather quenching in the hot summer weather, but it didn’t take long for the blistering heat to warm the beer enough to discern its character.

Rolling Rock Red isn’t made for beer geeks, and isn’t going to impress most of them by any stretch of the imagination. But it does have a relatively clean malt body and just enough chewy, slightly nutty caramel malt flavor to make it interesting. It finishes balanced to perhaps lightly sweet.

At about $2.50 for a 12-ounce mug, this was a bargain, too, and will likely be priced as such in six-packs, too. As a beer enthusiast, I probably won’t be buying this by the six-pack. But I will say that it was a refreshing, satisfying brew in the hot weather environment in which I enjoyed it.

Surely not the same as it ever was, but not bad for all that either.

(A note on references: the historical events mentioned in this review were culled from this beer drinker’s experience, but Wikipedia was used for the actual dates that the events occurred).

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