Richard Stallman has always emphasised the distinction that free software is “free as in open rather than as in ‘free beer'” when trying to communicate the spirit of the free software movement. Now comes an intriguing twist.

Students from the Information Technology University in Copenhagen is trying to help by releasing what they are calling the world’s first open source beer recipe.

It is called Vores Oel, or Our Beer, and the recipe is proving to be a worldwide hit.

The idea behind the beer comes from open source software. This is software whose code is made publicly available for anyone to change and improve, provided that those changes and improvements are then shared in turn.