M'ango Unchained 5.0%

M'ango Unchained is changinging... but why? At Brew Toon we believe in transparency and for that reason, we haven't tried to sneak this change in silently, we want to be as open and honest as possible, explaining all our reasoning as to why we are altering our most popular craft beer of all time...

Why we're changing the ABV

Over the years, we've poured thousands of pints of M'ango Unchained for you lovely people and it has always been the Brew Toon beer of choice, especially during festival season when the warmer weather is about, and the party vibe in well and truly in full flow. When the sun is out, there's nothing quite like a refreshing cold pint of juicy mango IPA whilst chilling in the sun!

However, over the last year or two, we've noticed a growing change in consumer drinking patterns with more people choosing to drink lower to mid session ABV's rather than chugging back pints of the higher ABV stuff (except for you hardcore few of course!). This is backed up with UK market insights data as well as of course, by speaking to some of our customers direct and gaining essential feedback on what sort of beers you're choosing to drink - whether that be a Brew Toon beer or not, and whether choosing to drink your beer at home or out at festivals or pubs. 

We've spoken to loads of customers, old and new, who all have enjoyed a pint of M'ango and this one quote below, sums up perfectly the general consensus of what we have gathered from listening to your thoughts:
"I absolutely love M'ango Unchained and have sunk it many a time at Inspired Nights on the Green and out in the back garden, but have had to limit myself to only a pint or 2 before finding something more sessionable because the high alcohol volume just hits too hard the next day!"

Other factors that come in to play

It's no secret that rising costs have been a challenge for all hospitality businesses and that's no difference for us. We have had to manage rising costs of ingredients, packaging, utilities, staff, taxes (to name just a few) and have chosen to absorb the vast majority of these without passing these on to our customers. It's no secret that lower ABV beers pay less duty and use less malt to produce than stronger strength beers and so by reducing the ABV slightly, it will allow us to continue selling at our current price, without having to pass any additional costs on to the consumer (those mangos aint cheap you know!). However, to put things into perspective here, the duty saved from lowering the ABV is not groundbreaking. It equates to 4p saved per pint, so please don't think this is just another cost saving excersise - because it's not! Improving our beer and making Brew Toon a more attractive choice for beer drinkers is our ultimate goal here - but of course, these small wins do help us a bit when it comes to balancing the books against price increases elsewhere... In fact, in this instance, it has also allowed us to make some subtle tweaks to our recipe so you will find we have actually cranked up the mango flavour by increasing our fruiting rate slightly, which we feel has greatly improved the juciness and overall drinkability of the beer!

So why 5.0%?

It's not a decision we've taken lightly and have done lots of research and number crunching in order to arrive at what we believe is the sweet spot for this particular beer. We didn't feel there was a need to make drastic changes, but did feel the need to act on where we see the market going. We want to make our most popular beer more accessible to the wider market and believe that this change will put M'ango Unchained on a more level paying field when it comes to making a choice on which beer consumers want to drink. We know from our own sales, what ABV's are selling best for us and believe that this change will make M'ango Unchained a more attractive proposition for our trade customers, when deciding which beers to list on their taps.

More M'ango to the People

To sum everything up, we want to make M'ango Unchained more accessible and enjoyable to the wider craft beer market. By making the ABV more sessionable we believe it will make it a more attractive choice for consumers and allows us to carry on doing what we love doing best, which is brewing the best beer possible and always striving to improve where we can.

We have now fully sold out of the previous 5.8% version in can with our newest and freshest 5.0% M'ango Unchained available from Wed 19th March 2025. For all our Trade Customers, we still have a small volume of 30L Polykeg in stock and will be offering 10% off until fully phased over.