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For the people who prefer Guinness, I think the investment for homebrewed draft stout is a wee heavy.

Funny you should say homebrew and wee heavy.

Reasonably skilled culturers can probably get some Pacman from the bottom of a Rogue bottle.

Wyeast sells it seasonally (Wyeast 1764) and you can order it from places like Northern Brewer.

My main suppliers are my LHBS Victor's Grape Arbor and Northern Brewer for the stuff Victor doesn't have.

Those are less-than-50-lb amounts. I do see some good price breaks for 50 lb sacks, so I suppose I could save some money if I did that.

$10 is pretty standard for a batch and you can knock it way down if you buy in bulk and have your own mill (sigh, someday...).

Grow your own hops. It's not that tough and is easily grown in most places.

Besides, prices don't seem that high. A little high, sure, but not overwhelming:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/hop-pellets.html

I know quite a few people already responded to your beer methodology, but the beer nerd in me can't help but put in a few words along with them.

First of all, you're absolutely right that his beer is probably gonna taste like crap (or "sparkling pond water" as John Palmer puts it). That said, there's nothing wrong with using extract, or "beersyrup" as you call it (though admittedly the pre-hopped stuff is worthy of derision). A lot of award-winning beers have been made from extracts with steeping grains. Most people start out doing a few extract beers, then move on to all-grain. Some people never move on to all-grain because they're happy with the beer they get from extract and don't want to go through the extra work that all-grain takes. On the other hand, all-grain is cheaper and gives you a lot more variables to tweak to control how your beer will turn out. It really just amounts to how cheap you are and how much time you want to spend.

As far as your methodology... either you're not articulating it well, or you don't really have the method down (at least not the method most people tend to use). Straining for clarity? What? Are you actually boiling the wort or not? I'm not going to lay out the precise steps that need to be followed as some people seem to be trying to do, but I will add on another recommendation for John Palmer's How to Brew, as well as Denny Conn's batch sparging instructions, Basic Brewing Radio, and The Jamil Show. There are also various forums that can be incredibly helpful as well.

Back on topic... the Bender statue is pretty much awesome, even if all it looks like all it really does beer-wise is hold a 5 gallon plastic bucket. Now, a temperature controlled stainless steel conical fermenter Bender, that would really be something...

I use this device to make carbonated drinks. It only costs $11 and works great. The target market is homebrewers who already have a draft beer setup. But even if you didn't want the beer setup, you could still buy a CO2 regulator and fittings for about $40. CO2 is quite cheap when purchase from local gas suppliers, and you can usually scrounge a used tank for cheap.

After a small(ish) initial investment, you can have pub-like ale at home. I get 1/4 barrel kegs of Sam Adams (I prefer a nice hoppy lager, but I'm sure you can find an ale to suit your tastes) for something like $56.00. A 1/4 barrel holds about 50 pints... that's what? $1.12ish a pint. What would you consider to be supermarket prices? Or better yet, brew your own and use a cornelius keg.

This is definitely a "hacker release", not for the begginer. There would be some very hillarious results that come from using this recipe. The "sealed container" bit is especially funny.

For those of you who haven't conducted this experiement on their own, fermentation in a sealed vessel tends to result in explosive decompression. Made the mistake of sealing a brewing yeast culture once. When I opened it every wall in my kitchen and one in my family room needed to have very foul smelling yeast cleaned off of them (beer fermentation residue is vile). I did that as soon as I cleaned it off my face.

In truth, someplace like http://www.northernbrewer.com/ is a good place for the beggining brewer. Their kits include the instructions that were left out of this recipe.

I took up zymurgy a few months ago, and it has been one of the most rewarding things that I have done - not just because I get lots of beer to drink, but because I get to experiment with different ingredients each batch on a neverending quest for the perfect beer.

If you're interested, check out this forum if you're interested - there's a wealth of homebrewing wisdom there! The forum is run by my local homebrew store, Northern Brewer. I'm not affiliated with them aside from being a happy beer-brewing customer.

I took up zymurgy a few months ago, and it has been one of the most rewarding things that I have done - not just because I get lots of beer to drink, but because I get to experiment with different ingredients each batch on a neverending quest for the perfect beer.

If you're interested, check out this forum if you're interested - there's a wealth of homebrewing wisdom there! The forum is run by my local homebrew store, Northern Brewer. I'm not affiliated with them aside from being a happy beer-brewing customer.

This online homebrew company has a good selection, and they run their business off of FreeBSD. Perfect for the slashdot crowd.

If you're concerned about the smell, try making cider, wine or mead. Although there's nothing like a good homebrew!

Just another reason to homebrew. It's much cheaper, too. Check out Northernbrewer

If you feel really brave and want to learn more about beer and get a much better feel for what good beer is really about I suggest brewing your own beer. The project will cost you about $100 to get started on, but then you'll be able to make some damn fine beer for a little over $10/case. I've found that some of the stuff I make is as good or better than imported beer that costs me $7 or more for a 6-pack.

If you don't feel that ambitious, go to any larger liquor store and have a look at their beer selection. Most likely you'll be able to find something brewed in your area of the country that hasn't suffered the abuse of being loaded onto a ship and sent across the Atlantic. It'll cost less and taste better.

Please note, I have no financial interest in any of the companies that I linked above. I just really like good beer and these are places that help me get it. Overall, there is a whole lot of really good beer in this country. Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise.
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