McMullen's, known locally as Mac's, is a

regional brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of beer ...

founded in 1827 in Hertford,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. The brewery expanded during the second half of the 19th century by purchasing other breweries and their associated pubs. In 1902 it was the second largest brewery in Hertfordshire. The brewery has occupied several different sites in Hertford and moved to its current location in 1891. There have been several breweries on this site and the current one opened in 2006. As of 2021, members of the 6th

generation A generation refers to all of the people born and living at about the same time, regarded collectively. It can also be described as, "the average period, generally considered to be about 20–⁠30 years, during which children are born and gr ...

of the McMullen family are still involved with the business.

History

McMullen's was founded in 1827 in Back Street (now Railway Street) Hertford by Peter McMullen(1798-1881), the son of an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

nurseryman A nursery is a place where plants are propagated and grown to a desired size. Mostly the plants concerned are for gardening, forestry or conservation biology, rather than agriculture. They include retail nurseries, which sell to the general p ...

. The passing of the Beerhouse Act in 1830 enabled Peter McMullen to open his own

beerhouse A beerhouse was a type of public house created in the United Kingdom by the 1830 Beerhouse Act, legally defined as a place "where beer is sold to be consumed ''on'' the premises". They were also known as 'small' or 'Tom and Jerry' shops Existing p ...

named after

William IV William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded h ...

in Mill Bridge, Hertford. The passing of the Beerhouse Act acted as a stimulus to common brewing and led to an increase in the number of breweries in Hertford, peaking at eight in Hertford in 1838. In 1966 McMullen's were the sole survivor. In 1860 Peter McMullen passed the business onto his sons Alexander Henry and Osmond Henry who began trading as P. McMullen & Sons. The company expanded during this period and acquired a number of local breweries. As the business grew it moved to Old Cross, Hertford in 1891 and a new brewery was built. The new brewery was designed by William Bradford and is now a grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. In 1897 the brewery became a

limited company In a limited company, the liability of members or subscribers of the company is limited to what they have invested or guaranteed to the company. Limited companies may be limited by shares or by guarantee. In a company limited by shares, the lia ...

, McMullen & Sons Ltd, when it owned 90

pub A pub (short for public house) is a kind of drinking establishment which is licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption on the premises. The term ''public house'' first appeared in the United Kingdom in late 17th century, and was ...

s. Osmond Henry became Chairman of the new company whilst Alexander Henry retired from the brewery and founded a seed merchant in Hertford. By 1902 McMullen's were the second largest brewery in Hertfordshire, behind Benskins Brewery of

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

and owned 131 pubs Osmond Henry died in May 1914 and his son Lieutenant colonel Osmond Robert became chairman. Osmond Henrys's grandson Peter, a former

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

colonel, ran the brewery from 1946 to 1980. In 1966 the brewery owned 200 pubs. A modern brewhouse was built in 1984 when John McMullen was company director. From the 1960s until the early 1990s, Mac's also brewed a range of kids' soft drinks that were sold at their pubs and also in the local

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as ...

stands and

newsagent A newsagent's shop or simply newsagent's or paper shop (British English), newsagency ( Australian English) or newsstand ( American and Canadian English) is a business that sells newspapers, magazines, cigarettes, snacks and often items of ...

shops. These included

lemonade Lemonade is a sweetened lemon-flavored beverage. There are varieties of lemonade found throughout the world. In North America and South Asia, cloudy still lemonade is the most common variety. There it is traditionally a homemade drink using ...

, Shandimac,

ginger beer Traditional ginger beer is a sweetened and carbonated, usually non-alcoholic beverage. Historically it was produced by the natural fermentation of prepared ginger spice, yeast and sugar. Current ginger beers are often manufactured rather than ...

, lime soda,

orange soda Orange soft drinks (called orange pop or orange soda in certain regions of the United States and Canada, orangeade in the UK, or the genericized trademark Orangina in France) are carbonated orange drinks. Non-carbonated orange drinks, i.e. the ...

, and

Maxi-Cola McMullen's, known locally as Mac's, is a regional brewery founded in 1827 in Hertford, England. The brewery expanded during the second half of the 19th century by purchasing other breweries and their associated pubs. In 1902 it was the second ...

which came in reuseable glass bottles that could be returned for a discount on the next drink. In 2002 there was a split between various members of the McMullen family some of whom wanted to turn their holdings into cash whilst others were happy to remain shareholders. Financial consultants were appointed and the company was put up for sale. The company was independently valued at £176m in 2002. A new independent chairman, Charles Brims, secured a compromise whereby several non-brewing property investments were sold in order to release cash to appease the majority shareholders and a plan was developed to build a new, smaller brewhouse. The company decided to shed contract brewing and take advantage of tax breaks by becoming a smaller brewer. As the new Whole Hop Brewery (opened 2006) was more compact than the 1984-built plant, the spare land was sold to

Sainsbury's J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company ...

in 2007. This is the fifth McMullen brewery to operate on this site McMullen's brews cask ale and

pasteurised Pasteurization American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), or pasteurisation is a process of food preservation in which packaged and non-packaged foods (such as milk and fruit juices) are treated with mi ...

bottled beers. The company owns over 130 freehold pubs, mainly in the

Home Counties The home counties are the counties of England that surround London. The counties are not precisely defined but Buckinghamshire and Surrey are usually included in definitions and Berkshire, Essex, Hertfordshire and Kent are also often included ...

, with a number in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, including The Spice of Life in Cambridge Circus, The White Swan in Pimlico and The Nag's Head in Covent Garden. McMullen's is acquisitive and has recently purchased pubs and bars in

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It ...

Sevenoaks Sevenoaks is a town in Kent with a population of 29,506 situated south-east of London, England. Also classified as a civil parish, Sevenoaks is served by a commuter main line railway into London. Sevenoaks is from Charing Cross, the traditio ...

Fleet Fleet may refer to: Vehicles *Fishing fleet *Naval fleet *Fleet vehicles, a pool of motor vehicles *Fleet Aircraft, the aircraft manufacturing company Places Canada * Fleet, Alberta, Canada, a hamlet England * The Fleet Lagoon, at Chesil Beach ...

, Marlow, Milton Keynes and Bishop's Stortford. Due to the forced pub closures during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

of 2020–21, Mac's began selling

takeaway A take-out or takeout (U.S., Canada, and the Philippines); carry-out or to-go (Scotland and some dialects in the U.S. and Canada); takeaway (England, Wales, Australia, Lebanon, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally in Nort ...

casks of beer directly from their brewery yard. The company has no debt.

Beers

McMullen's produces three regular cask ales and several occasional ales. The regular range consists of:

Cask Ales

Cask ales are

real ale Real ale is the name coined by the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) for beer that is "brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous car ...

s that have been cask conditioned and will continue to ferment in the cask in a process known as secondary fermentation.

McMullen AK

McMullen AK is a mild beer with an

ABV Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) o ...

of 3.7%, brewed in Hertford since 1833. AK was once a popular designation for beers which were light in gravity and colour and lightly hopped. Brewed with a mix of malts with Kentish Witbread Goldings the only hops used.

McMullen IPA

McMullen IPA is a traditional English IPA with an

of 4.8%. The Hops used are undisclosed, but are added as whole leaf hops, as opposed to the compressed hops pellets more commonly used in non-traditional brewing.

Country Best Bitter

Country Best Bitter, first brewed in 1964, is a traditional bitter with an ABV of 4.3%, brewed with Fuggle, Progress and Bramling Cross hops and a mixture of pale malts.

McMullen Cask

McMullen house cask ale, in production since 2007, is a 3.8%ABV 'honey-gold' ale with undisclosed ingredients

Mac's No.1 Pale Ale

Number One Pale Ale is a 3.8% amber cask ale popular among agricultural workers since the turn of the century. It was previously advertised under the slogan "second to no-one", or "second to none", and was known as No. 1 Bitter before 1950. Discontinued during the early 1990s, but brought back into production in 2021.

Bootwarmer

Bootwarmer is an old ale first brewed in 1995 and sold in McMullen pubs during the Christmas holidays from 2002 onwards. It was discontinued in 2019 due to the

, but brought back in December 2021.

Bottled Beers

McMullen Hertford Castle

Hertford Castle is a 5%ABV strong ale brewed with Suffolk barley and undeclared whole leaf hops. First brewed in 1960, the beer is named after

Hertford Castle Hertford Castle was built in Norman times by the River Lea in Hertford, the county town of Hertfordshire, England. Most of the internal buildings of the castle have been demolished. The main surviving section is the Tudor gatehouse, which is a Gr ...

, where Queen

Elizabeth I of England Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen". Eli ...

spent much of her childhood.

McMullen Stronghart

A speciality brew with an ABV of 7%, Stronghart is made to an 1850s recipe with East Anglian barley and undeclared whole leaf hops and won gold in the 1997

CAMRA The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is an independent voluntary consumer organisation headquartered in St Albans, England, which promotes real ale, cider and perry and traditional British pubs and clubs. With just under 155,000 members, it is ...

Champion Beer of Briton barley wine and strong old ale class.Stronghart
/ref> Originally known as Mac's Olde Time Strong Ale, it was rebranded as Stronghart in 1993.

Rivertown

The Rivertown range was introduced in 2017 to produce

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. ...

friendly pale ale, IPA and

Pilsner Pilsner (also pilsener or simply pils) is a type of pale lager. It takes its name from the Bohemian city of Plzeň (german: Pilsen), where the world's first pale lager (now known as Pilsner Urquell) was produced in 1842 by Pilsner Urquell Bre ...

. The Session IPA, at 4.1%, uses Citra, Waimea and crystal hops for a citrus finish.

Guest beers

Camra The Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) is an independent voluntary consumer organisation headquartered in St Albans, England, which promotes real ale, cider and perry and traditional British pubs and clubs. With just under 155,000 members, it is ...

1950

Porter Porter may refer to: Companies * Porter Airlines, Canadian regional airline based in Toronto * Porter Chemical Company, a defunct U.S. toy manufacturer of chemistry sets * Porter Motor Company, defunct U.S. car manufacturer * H.K. Porter, Inc., ...

(2022-23) *Amber Bay IPA (2022-23) *Rivertown Helles

Lager Lager () is beer which has been brewed and conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be pale, amber, or dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially available style of beer. The term "lager" comes from the German for "storag ...

(2022-23) *Rivertown Solstice (2022) * Jubilant 70 Golden Ale (2022)

Out of production

*Normality (2021–22) *Rivertown Freedom (2021–22) *Mac's Oat Brown Stout (2020–21), a 4.4% ABV recreation of a beer produced at the Hertford brewery during the 1930s. *Chinook (2020–21) *OK Bloomer (2021) *Victory Stout (2018) *Carriage Court Ale (2018) *Golden Years (2017) *Special Day (2015) * Hop On A Mo(2015) *Brave Herts (2015) *Flying Frog (2014–16) *Love Herts (2014) *Bard of Ale (2013) *Screaming Reels (2011–13) *Stag Bitter (2008) *Harvest Moon (2006-2008) *Victory 1805 (2005) *Special Reserve Anniversary Porter (2000) *Oatmeal Ale (1997-2001) *Gladstone (1995-2001) *J.M Premium Bitter (1990s) *Hartsman

(1980s) *Crafter Low Alcohol Bitter (1970s) *Mac's Stout (1960s-1970s) *Mitre (1960s-1990s) *Mac's Brown (1960s) *Old Cross (1950s-1960s) *Coronation (1953) *Family Ale (1950s) *Lady Mac (1950s) * Shandimac (1950s-1980s) *No. 3 Special Pale Ale (1950s-1970s) *Nut Brown Ale (1940s-1950s) *

Milk Stout Stout is a dark, top-fermented beer with a number of variations, including dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout, and imperial stout. The first known use of the word ''stout'' for beer, in a document dated 1677 found in the Egerton Manuscri ...

(1930s) *Oat Brown Stout (1930s-1950s) *Dinner Ale (1920s) *Dark Beer (1920s-40s), renamed Olde Time Ale during the 1950s and Stronghart in 1993 *White Label (1880s-1920s)

Pubs

Enfield, Jolly Farmers Public House - geograph

* The Peahen, St Albans *The Woolpack, Hertford *The Millstream, Hertford *Dog and Whistle, Hertford, formerly known as The Ram * Lord Haig, Hertford *Salisbury Arms Hotel, Hertford *Golden Griffin, Hertford *The Greyhound,

Bengeo Bengeo is a suburb and former village and civil parish on the northwest edge of the county town of Hertford in Hertfordshire, England. It is an electoral ward of Hertford. In 1891 the parish had a population of 2586. In 1894 the parish was abol ...

*The Builders Arms,

Potters Bar Potters Bar is a town in Hertfordshire, England,in the historic County of Middlesex Hertsmere Borough Council – Community Strategy First Review (PDF) north of central London. In 2011, it had a population of 21,882. In 2022 the population was ...

*The Black Bull, Buntingford *The Angel,

Waltham Abbey Waltham Abbey is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex, within the metropolitan and urban area of London, England, north-east of Charing Cross. It lies on the Greenwich Meridian, between the River Lea in the west and ...

*Baroosh, Hertford, Chelmsford and Bishops Stortford. *The Hare, Harlow *

Nag's Head, Covent Garden The Nag's Head is a Grade II listed public house at 10 James Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2. History The pub was built in about 1900 and the architect was P. E. Pilditch. In late 1951 the landlords, Whitbread, converted it to a theatric ...

. * The Plough,

Crews Hill Crews Hill is an elevated and green-buffered former hamlet grown into a small village-size community on the northern outskirts of London centred north of Charing Cross. It forms part of the London Borough of Enfield and economically has many g ...

* The Kingfisher on the Quay,

Mytchett Mytchett is a village in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, approximately southwest of central London. It is to the east of Farnborough (in Hampshire), the nearest town. Much of the village dates from the first half of the twenti ...

* The Jolly Postie, formerly Royston

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional ser ...

. *Saracens Head, Ware *The King's Mead, Ware *The Sun,

Hoddesdon Hoddesdon () is a town in the Borough of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire, lying entirely within the London Metropolitan Area and Greater London Urban Area. The area is on the River Lea and the Lee Navigation along with the New River. Hoddesdon ...

*The Bull,

Broxbourne Broxbourne is a town and former civil parish, now in the unparished area of Hoddesdon, in the Broxbourne district, in Hertfordshire, England, north of London, with a population of 15,303 at the 2011 Census.Broxbourne Town population 2011 I ...

*The Heron on the Lake,

Fleet, Hampshire Fleet is a town and civil parish in the Hart District of Hampshire, England, centred 38.2 miles (61.5 km) WSW of London and 13 miles (21 km) east of Basingstoke. It is the major town of the Hart District, and has large technology business a ...

*The White Swan,

Westminster, London Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

*The Yew Tree,

Walkern Walkern is a village and civil parish in East Hertfordshire, England. It is about two miles from Stevenage. The village has several shops, including a convenience store, a hair and beauty salon, a craft shop, a shop that features homestyle prod ...

* The Old Bank of England, Fleet Street,

*The Harrier (The Hilltop), Hatfield, Hertfordshire *The Hopfields Hatfield, Hertfordshire * The Red Lion Hatfield, Hertfordshire *Hollybush, Loughton, Essex *The Cambridge Tap, Cambridge

References

External links

*
1992 Independent review by Michael Jackson
{{coords, 51.7985, -0.0803, display=title Breweries in England British companies established in 1827 1827 establishments in England Buildings and structures in Hertford