A few things. 1) Any particular reason not to do the lentils and rice at the same time? 'cuz that's how I've always done lentil-ey soups and it seems to work... 2) You're perilously close to one of Bellingham's most famous recipes. 3) You are drinking the beer, you're just taking a roundabout way of doing it. And trust me, you want to use good beer. I once got a coupon for $4 off a $5.99 12-pack of Hamm's Lite Ice. We bought two - I mean, what's not to like about $4/case beer? Until we discovered that it was so nasty you couldn't attract slugs with it. I poured some in some ground beef while making chili and rendered the entire meal inedible. My roommate at the time would drink anything... and while we ended up having to buy Scope way too regularly, we had more than half a case of that shit left over when we moved out a year later. It might still be under the sink.