| Type | Milk stout |
|---|---|
| Industry | Alcoholic beverage |
| Founded | 1907 |
| Founder(s) | John Henry Johnson |
| Headquarters | Hythe, Kent, England |
| Products | Beer |
| Owner(s) | InBev |
Mackeson Stout is a dark sweet beer. It is one of the few surviving examples of an old southern English style of sweet stout also known as milk stout because it contains lactose, a sugar derived from milk.[1]
Contents |
Milk stout (also called sweet stout, mellow stout, or cream stout) is a stout containing lactose, a sugar derived from milk. Because lactose is unfermentable by Saccharomyces cerevisiae, it adds sweetness, body, and calories to the finished beer. Contemporary labeling standards prevent the use of the term in the UK, but Mackeson still bears on its label the milk churn that has been its trademark since it was first brewed in 1907.
Milk stout was supposed to be very nutritious, and was given to nursing mothers. In 1875, John Henry Johnson first sought a patent for a milk beer, based on whey, lactose, and hops.[2]
The recipe for Mackeson Milk Stout has been around since 1801, but that is in reference to the British version of the beer known simply as Mackeson’s Stout.[3]
The beer was originally brewed in Hythe, Kent, by Mackeson's Brewery in 1907. Brewing discontinued after 1968 at the Hythe plant.[4]
Whitbread acquired the brand in the 1920s and gave it national distribution, eventually turning it into the market leader for a low abv sweet dark beer. Whitbread was purchased in 2001 by InBev. The beer is no longer brewed in England, but by Boston Beer Company's Cincinnati plant. [5]
A long-lasting television advertising campaign with the actor Bernard Miles contained the catch-phrase that Mackeson "looks good, tastes good and, by golly, it does you good."[6]
In the UK the beer is now contract brewed by Wells & Young's Brewery "under supervision" of InBev.[7] The British version is 3.0% abv and is available in 330ml cans or 275ml bottles. The UK version is among the top twenty highest selling beers in Hong Kong, selling over 5,000 hectolitres a year.[8]
A 4.9% XXX version is brewed by Carib Brewery in Trinidad for the local market where it is targeted at young adult males with the advertising slogan, "Take it to the Max".[9]
A 5% abv version called Mackeson XXX was once brewed for the American market. This American version was not an import from the UK and was brewed in Cincinnati, Ohio by Hudepohl-Schoenling. This brewery is no longer in business, and this stout is no longer brewed in the U.S.