BREWDOG has secured a site in Columbus, Ohio to build its first brewery outside of Scotland, writes Scott Wright.

The development was announced at the craft beer firm's annual general meeting at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre, which attracted an audience of 6000.

The capacity of the brewery, a key part of its strategy to drive sales in the US, has still to be decided.

Shareholders at the AGM also heard that BrewDog has raised £6.2 million in its latest crowdfunding drive. It is looking to raise a total of £25m in its fourth Equity for Punks campaign, which has attracted 9700 investments so far. It had raised £5m in the first 20 days of the drive, which launched in April.

So far BrewDog has drummed up more than 24,500 "fanvestors" over the course of its crowdfunding activity.

The brewer, founded by James Watt and Martin Dickie, has issued 526,316 shares for the fourth round which, if fully subscribed, would mean 23 per cent of its shares are held by "punk" investors. A successful fund-raiser would give BrewDog an implied market valuation of about £300m.