Mackeson's XXX
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Mackeson's XXX is a dark sweet beer. It is one of the few surviving examples of an old southern English style of sweet stout once known as milk stout, so-called because it contains lactose, a sugar derived from milk.
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[edit] Milk stout
Milk Stout (also called Sweet 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's still wears on its label the milk churn that has been its trademark on and off 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.
[edit] History
The beer was originally brewed in Hythe, Kent, by Mackeson's Brewery in 1907.
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.
[edit] Current situation
The beer is now brewed "under supervision" of Whitbread by InBev (formerly Interbrew), who in turn have commissioned Young's to brew the beer at the Ram Brewery in London. The Mackeson recipe itself is touted as being around since 1801, although milk beer wasn't patented until 1875.
Two versions are brewed, a 3.75% abv version for the United Kingdom market, and a 5% abv version called "Mackeson XXX" for the American market.
