Powdered, freeze-dried coffee has been around for decades. So why not try the same thing with beer? A Danish craft brewery is doing just that.

Tore Gynther (left) and Tobias Emil Jensen.The six-year-old brewery, owned by Tobias Emil Jensen and Tore Gynther, is working on a method to see how viable freeze-dried beer would be. The company says it has been experimenting with various freeze-drying techniques to see what kind of effect that process has on the flavors of beers. The news was reported by Craft Beer Quarterly.

The process works via sublimation, or the process of creating a transition of a substance directly from the solid to the gas phase without passing through the intermediate liquid phase. In this case, Jensen and Gynther freeze the beer and then turn it into gas.

Their brewery’s freeze-drying system freezes the beer and exposes it to a vacuum, causing ice to turn directly into gas. The powder left over from the process only needs water and alcohol to create instant beer. Jensen says that the resulting product tastes just like the real thing.

Jensen and Gynther see only limited potential for commercializing their idea. They say they’re perfecting the method as a way of learning how the properties in beer can be broken down and reconstituted. If it turns out that the resulting product is popular with travelers or hikers, all the better.