Never mind the looming spectre of economic collapse. The European Union is pouring some of its funds towards researching how to chill beer really fast, The Daily Mail reports.
The makers of the Rapidcool device, London-based Enviro-Cool, claim that the product can cool beer cans and bottles to 4 degrees Celcius, or 39.5 degrees Fahrenheit, within 45 seconds.
The E.U. granted Enviro-Cool £760,000, or $1.2 million, in research funding to develop the device.
“The investment is based on the product’s potential to significantly reduce energy requirements in supermarket cooler aisles,” reports The Daily Mail.
Instead of supermarkets spending money on energy to keep beverages refrigerated, they can store the drinks on shelves and customers can cool chill them when they want to buy them.
“The inventors hope the device will allow shoppers to choose a drink from a supermarket shelf, place it into the Rapidcool machine and get it back chilled without waiting around,” wrote the publication.