The Wild Beer Co is looking to raise £1.5m via crowdfunding to develop a new brewery space.

The company, which was launched four years ago by Andrew Cooper and Brett Ellis, aims to build a new brewery to include a taproom, restaurant, private dining area and corporate hosting facilities with gardens growing fruit and vegetables for the beers and kitchen. It also wants to develop the current brewery into a barrel ageing specialist site.

The new brewery will be based on the Bath & West Showground and will have the capacity to brew more than 12 million litres a year. The showground already attracts one million visitors a year.

Wild Beer currently employs 60 people across its brewer and two restaurant bars. The business exports to 22 countries and it specialises in craft and sour beers, and in particular wild beers, which are fermented by wild yeasts. The beers are described as being “slow beers, the flavours take longer to develop, but the results can be more complex, layered and refined”.

Co-founder Brett Ellis said: “The brewery was started with a passion for the flavours of barrel-aged wild and sour beers. Our base in Somerset was the perfect backdrop that provided the inspiration and ingredients to begin that dream.”