Olde English 800 is a brand of American

malt liquor Malt liquor is a type of mass market beer with high alcohol content, most closely associated with North America. Legally, it often includes any alcoholic beverage with 5% or more alcohol by volume made with malted barley. In common usage, i ...

produced by the

Miller Brewing Company The Miller Brewing Company is an American brewery and beer company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was founded in 1855 by Frederick Miller. Molson Coors acquired the full global brand portfolio of Miller Brewing Company in 2016, and operates the ...

. It was introduced in 1964 and owned by Miller Brewing Company since 1999. It is available in a variety of serving sizes including, since the late 1980s, a bottle.

History

Introduction

Olde English 800, also known as 8 ball, was introduced in 1964. It had its origins in the late 1940s as ''Ruff's Olde English Stout'', brewed by Peoples Brewing Company of

Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior, Wisconsin, Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: Downtown Dul ...

. Rebranded Olde English 600, it was later sold to Bohemian Breweries of

Spokane, Washington Spokane ( ) is the largest city and county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It is in eastern Washington, along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south of the ...

, and then to Blitz-Weinhard of

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous ...

, where it became Olde English 800. By the time Blitz-Weinhard was sold to the

Pabst Brewing Company The Pabst Brewing Company () is an American company that dates its origins to a brewing company founded in 1844 by Jacob Best and was, by 1889, named after Frederick Pabst. It is currently a holding company which contracts the brewing of over ...

in 1979, Olde English Malt Liquor had become their top brand.

1980s

In August 1989, when the brand was owned by Pabst and targeted by the brewer towards the "urban contemporary market", a coalition of "22 public interest groups involved in minority issues" criticized the marketing of Olde English – which as a malt liquor has a high alcohol content in comparison to most beers – for what they characterized as an "emphasis on black and Hispanic consumers."

1990s

In 1991, 1992, 1994, and 1995, while still owned by Pabst, Olde English was awarded a gold medal in the American Malt Liquor category at the

Great American Beer Festival The Great American Beer Festival (GABF) is an annual beer festival hosted by the Brewers Association, held in Denver, Colorado. Typically held in late September or early October, the event is currently held at Denver's Colorado Convention Center. ...

. In 1992, Pabst introduced ''Old English 800 Draft'', a cold-filtered instead of

pasteurized 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 ...

"draft-style" malt liquor. Olde English received the gold medal in the American Style Specialty Lager category in 1997. The 1999 acquisition of Olde English 800 by Miller meant its share of the U.S. malt liquor business grew to 36 percent; it also led to a "less controversial" marketing strategy for the brand, one that by 2000 included the sponsorship of a series of minority business seminars.

2000s–2010s

In 2010, the 3.2% ABW version of Olde English was rated one of "the worst beer in the world" by RateBeer.com, a beer rating website.

Alcohol content

As of 2010, Olde English 800 is brewed in several versions which vary in

alcohol by volume 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) ...

(ABV): Currently it is available in a 16-ounce 73 mlpint can, 24-ounce

10 ml 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

"tallboy" can, or a 22-ounce 51 ml 40-ounce .183 litreor 42-ounce .242 litreplastic bottle. It was originally available in 12-ounce 55 mlor 32-ounce 47 ml"King Size" (c.1999) cans and 22-, 40-, 45- or 64-ounce glass bottles.

References

{{Malt liquors American beer brands 1964 establishments in the United States