An inventor has developed a machine that turns beers into a soft scoop 'ice cream' - that's just as alcoholic.

The 'Below Zero' machine takes a beer, or any alcoholic beverage, and crystallises it in under 30 minutes for a treat that can be covered in sprinkles and chocolate sauce.

Developed with WDS Dessert Stations in Hinkley, Illinois, USA, a frozen beer retains its alcoholic content, meaning customers can even get drunk on dessert.

The drink is first de-gassed to remove the carbon dioxide, mixed with a gel, put in the machine and out comes the ice cream.

Inventor and owner of Below Zero, Will Rogers, said: "The way it truly works we like to say the gel bear hugs the alcohol itself and turns it into ice cream.

"With alcohol, the freezing point is what we've created, there's never been a freezing point because it's never been able to be consumed at that freezing point.

"In the beginning days we used liquid nitrogen to make Below Zero but now with the new machines you put it out in a cone and it's ready to eat."

The Nitrogen Ingredient Additive gel allows the alcohol to freeze to a near solid inside the machine as well as adding sugars.

It is FDA-approved and pasteurised, and since the drink contains no dairy products, it's not technically ice cream.

The machine itself will cost sweet-toothed breweries $6,000 (£4,300), but will allow them to serve all drinks, from a pint of lager to a strawberry Daiquiri, in a cone.

It takes half an hour to go from liquid to crystalline solid - something a Slushie machine would take hours to achieve - but the higher the alcoholic content the longer the wait.