(TDK) - Scottish brewers BrewDog has launched a $50 million Crowdfunder project in the US in a bid to help it tap into the world’s biggest craft beer market. 

Since 2010, the brewery has raised £26m from a controversial investment programme called Equity for Punks, and they are now said to be opening a new 42-acre brewery on a site in Columbus, Ohio.

This will be the company’s fifth venture into crowd funded projects, with this latest one lasting for an estimated six months. They so far have 46,000 investors, but this will be the first one exclusively aimed at the US.

A report in The Telegraph claims that the American craft beer market now holds 12% of the overall beer market, with the Brewers Association tipping this to rise to 20% by 2020.

However, recent data has suggested that this growth has slowed down, as the 8% rise has been halved from the 16% it enjoyed during the same period last year.

“Equity for Punks is a completely new business model in the States – it’s a revolution in small business finance,” BrewDog’s co-founder James Watt said.