This Brewery Says It’s Invented Instant Craft-Beer Powder

Ready for some liquid.

Humans finally have a beverage besides powdered Gatorade that can survive the zombie apocalypse: Denmark’s To Øl brewery has created instant craft beer, a freeze-dried mix that, with a splash of liquid, turns into something that sounds a thousand times better than Lemon Drop Palcohol.

To Øl’s Tobias Emil Jensen and Tore Gynther say freeze-drying removes beer’s dry matter (sugars, proteins, fats) from the liquid in an “unaffected way.” The result is effectively the Folgers of microbrews, lacking just sparkling water and alcohol. The two brewmasters have powderized four styles so far — what they’re describing as a “heavy deep beer brewed with coffee,” a “fruity IPA brewed with different tropical fruits,” a “Wild Yeast hop forward IPA,” and a “fairly dry pilsner.” Their goal is getting quality beer to places where that’s typically impossible — while mountain climbing, for instance, or on the plane after you’re already past TSA.

The product isn’t ready for market yet. It also scores relatively high on gimmickry and low on practicality, but it could feasibly give beer lovers the ability to mix and match dry ingredients with alcohol content, thereby creating their own custom brews. Want an IPA you can sip without getting woozy? Not a problem. Or go the other direction, and improve nosebleed stadium seats by building a couple well-placed pouches into a pilsner with a knee-buckling 12 percent ABV. Sounds promising, at least until powdered alcohol’s archnemesis Chuck Schumer gets wind of all this.

This Brewery Says It’s Invented Instant Craft-Beer Powder