That fellow is Knud Axel Syrup. Really. He wants to get off the planet Grendel before it's embroiled in a way between Irish revolutionaries and Angicans. (Really.) And so . . .

as Herr Syrup shook up a bottle of brew and let the foam shoot out of its top, he realized suddenly what cold be done to get him off Grendel.

And so came about the marvellous spaceship, built of beer kegs, bound by gunk, upholstered with pretzel boxes, and powered by the mighty reaction forces of malted brew!

Okay then.