Two of the best things about the year 2014 are the Craft Beer Renaissance and Kickstarter. Almost anyone can go to the local brewery, get a growler, and taste something that is completely unavailable to your college buddy in Little Rock. The problem is that you have to finish all four pints in just one sitting or risk it turning into stagnant grain juice by the time you open your fridge again.
Steve Young of St. Louis, Missouri, has felt the same way, and he went and did something about it. He engineered SYNEK, a system that maintains freshness and full carbonation for any beer you put in its vacuum-sealed bags for 30 days. The machine sites there on the counter, daring you to pour a beer that will be as good as the one in the bar.
If people actually start using this in large numbers, think about the sheer volume of waste that could be saved -- not just in beer, but in packaging, bottles, and cans. When you consider Americans drank 50 billion pints last year, well, that's a lot of glass, cardboard, and aluminum that was hopefully recycled.
There's just one hitch -- it's not available to the general public. Yet. But you can get in on the ground floor over at Kickstarter, where the SYNEK is en route to becoming a retail reality. Young is looking to raise $250 grand by July 24, and is offering a variety of incentives from custom colored SYNEK dispensers to tours of their headquarters and a night out on the town. What are you waiting for?
