BREWDOG, the Aberdeenshire-based craft beer producer, has asked its Twitter followers to create its latest brew.

The brewer's 25,000-plus followers will nominate the style, strength and name of the beer via a series of questions posed on the social media platform this week.

The #mashtag campaign, which BrewDog said would create the world's first "democratically-designed beer", began on Monday.

Followers were asked to nominate their preferred style of beer, and 600 chose brown ale from the choice of three provided.

The style vote was followed yesterday by a poll on Malt bill (ingredients) and ABV (alcoholic strength).

Today, fans are being asked to vote on hops and IBU (international bittering units). The final two votes, on the beer's special twist and its name, will take place tomorrow and Friday.

A spokeswoman said the beer would be made as soon as the contest concluded, but could not confirm when it would be available or how widely it would be distributed until the final recipe had been decided.

She said this is because the duration of the brewing process varies depending on the style of beer, with stronger beers taking longer to brew.

BrewDog co-founder and head brewer Martin Dickie said: "The craft beer community always comes out with such insane, awesome ideas. They have such passion for innovation [and] we wanted to put that to good use.

"With #mashtag, we're giving them a forum to share their zany, crazy ideas and actually create an entirely new beer – the beer by the people, for the people.

"We can't wait to see what they come up with."

The #mashtag campaign is the latest example of the Ellon-based brewer engaging its fans on the company's development.