{"product_id":"brew-a","title":"Brew 'A'","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn 1862 Thomas Cooper was prompted to brew a batch of ale to be used as a tonic for his ailing wife, Ann. It was Ann, the daughter of an Innkeeper, who supplied the recipe. On the 17th of May 1862, Thomas wrote in his Day Book, '\"The Ale brewed on 13 put in Cask and in drawing it out of the Working Tub the tap came out and I lost 2 or 3 gal Ale. Pity\". Luckily for us, he salvaged the remainder and upon sampling the brew, his neighbours were asking for more – a situation that Brewers know too well! Thomas went on to use alphabet characters for identifying his brews with this (Brew 'A') being his first. His base recipe was 4 bushels (B) of English Malt, 8 pounds (lb) of Kent Hops to 46 Gallons (gal) of water. At the time and being unlicensed, he could only sell parcels of his brew not less than 5 gallons at a time. This equates to 2 ½ dozen quart bottles or 23 litres, which coincidentally, has become the standard brew length for modern day DIY brewers. In those days, the beer making process may have taken as long as 9 weeks prior to bottling; brew the wort, allow the wort to cool, primary fermentation in a large vat (about 4 days) then transfer to casks for secondary fermentation and clearing (up to 8 weeks). Averaging a batch every two weeks, he soon settled on a formula of 1B Malt, 2lbs Hops made to 13 gal selling for 6 shilling per dozen and a stronger version, only made to 11 gal, for 7 shilling per dozen. So based on modern brewing techniques this recipe has been designed to replicate as closely as possible Brew ‘A’, The brewery's first ever recorded brew. Unlike the 'good ol' days', we don’t have to endure substandard equipment, poorly converted malt, stale hops, lazy yeast and airborne spoilage organisms – phew!!\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DIY BEER AU","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57053411999904,"sku":"28041","price":57.5,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1043\/6178\/7552\/files\/TC_BOOTMAKER_PALE_ALE_b4daa971-c855-4685-b266-2002532ffd32.jpg?v=1779457613","url":"https:\/\/www.diybeer.com\/products\/brew-a","provider":"Coopers DIY Beer","version":"1.0","type":"link"}