Mackeson and Co Ltd , brewers

The Mackeson brewery in Hythe became part of the Whitbread organisation when it was acquired in 1929 along with Jude Hanbury and Company Limited. Both companies were merged with Leney and Sons to form a group refered to collectively by Whitbread as The Kent Breweries.

Although reports vary, the brewery could have been founded as early as 1669 although it didn't begin commercial production of beer until 1907. It was most well known for its Mackeson recipe of milk stout using milk sugar, patented in 1875, which it began to produce in 1910. However, post-war disapproval from the Government of its claims over milk content resulted in the dropping the word "milk" from its labels. By the mid-1960s Mackeson accounted for over half of all Whitbread production however, owing to its low alcohol content of 3%, it fell out of fashion. Following the takeover of Whitbread by Interbrew it was brewed at their Magor brewery in Wales before being contracted to Young's.

The Mackeson line also includes triple (XXX) stout and XXXX stout brewed for both the American and British markets.