It's pretty true that Keurig has changed how most of us drink hot beverages. With the purchase of one little machine, we can now drink just about any instant hot beverage, from chai to coffee to chicken broth. Never has the process of heating water seemed so easy.
Now, imagine if someone reworked that magic with beer. A little tabletop gizmo allows you to drink a seemingly unlimited selection of craft beers from microbreweries throughout the country just by switching out a cartridge. Seems like a dream, doesn't it?
Wake up, Buddy Boy, because Synek makes your beer-drinking fantasies a reality.
See also: Funky Buddha Now Available in Orlando, Including Universal Resort
The system, a play on the word "cynical," is the size of a toaster oven and can be used with the company's cartridges or attached directly to a home brewer's bucket to be used as a portable CO2-charged tap system. The retail price for people who support the company through Kickstarter is $299, and prices for cartridges vary based on beer. Each cartridge holds about two growlers' worth of brew.
So why buy (and buy into) this system? According to founder Steve Young (and a few dozen craft brewers), the beer in the growler you just had filled lasts only about 12 hours once it's opened. Synek cartridges last about 30 days. Plus, the cartridges are simply recycled so you don't have to have glass growlers lying around the house.
Young is planning on having many breweries "on tap," with the capabilities of filling and selling the cartridges. In fact, Synek founder Steve Young tells us that Florida is one of the states that will benefit most from Synek, telling Clean Plate Charlie that Synek may be a way around the state's 64-ounce growler laws.
Young says that his team has spoken with many Florida breweries, including Cigar City and Funky Buddha. In fact, John Linn from Funky Buddha is seen on Synek's video at the 5:00 mark, talking about how the machine could be a game changer in the way we buy and drink beer.
Right now, the company has launched a Kickstarter campaign with the goal of raising $250,000. If you're into beer and want to make an investment, the company is accepting Kickstarter pledges as low as one dollar (the "cheap bastard" level of investment) right through to the $10,000 "Golden Falcon God-King" level of investment.
Here's a little more about how the product can turn your kitchen into a brewery of sorts (without all that measuring and cleaning):
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