There are a lot of kits out there, that generally contain malt, hops and yeast. The type of beer/ale you end up with depends on the mix of malt and hops. You have to add sugar or crystal malt to the mix. Most kits are rated as making five Imperial gallons (since they're mostly British). The other kind of kit that you'll need is the brewing set-up, which is a big bucket, thermometer, bottle capper and various bits of tubing. I get rid of most of the residue (basically dead yeast) by siphoning from the brewing bucket into a glass carboy and botteling from there. Grolsch bottles are good, but most bottles are ok, EXCEPT TWIST TOPS. Brewing supply stores generally have them available for sale, but its much more fun to buy a selection of 6-packs of good beer, dring them, and reuse the bottles. this takes longer, but what the heck. By all means, get him a basic brewing instruction book.