Skipton'S Copper Dragon brewery has proved an overwhelming success.

Within six months of opening, the company has met its targets for the first 18 months and has won a number of awards from the Campaign for Real Ale at local beer festivals.

It has also been listed in the Campaign for Real Ale's 2004 Good Beer Guide and it now plans to expand its operation.

The brewery intends to buy six of its own public houses in the New Year, which will stock the full range of Copper Dragon ales and other independent ales.

At the moment about one in 10 pubs stock Copper Dragon beers.

But it is hard to get a bigger coverage as 90 per cent of all pubs are owned by large national brewers who are sometimes reluctant to allow independent ales to be sold at their premises.

Mr Taylor explained: "Unless landlords have a contract that allows them to stock guest ales of their choosing, they find it difficult to stock our product. This has made it very hard for us.

"What we want to do is to get back to the way it was in the 1970s where the landlord had the freedom of choice to buy ales of his choice. I think this is a much fairer policy."

Instead of taking a fixed percentage of the profits as is common practice with most breweries, the Copper Dragon will only take rent from its tenants.

The company already has six landlords on file waiting to take on tenancies.

Initially the company had envisaged selling their beers within a 15-mile radius of Skipton, but Copper Dragon ales are being sold across Yorkshire and touching the northern tip of Manchester.

The brewery also wants to add a mezzanine floor at its Snaygill premises, which will accommodate cask washing system, a twin-head racking line and an extra 30-barrel brew capacity.

This will allow it to produce 57,600 pints of beer a week - its current monthly output.

Work is due to begin in February and it will be undertaken by the same German company that built the original brewhouse.

The business is the fulfilment of a dream for managing director Steve Taylor, whose lifelong ambition has been to run his own brewery.

He said: "The brewery has been an unbelievable project to be involved in. We had a budget plan which took us through to 18 months and we have succeeded in that within six months.

"We have even brought forward our plans to build a new brewhouse."

Over the past few weeks the brewery has been brewing back to back to meet the demand for Christmas.

"Our product is right for the market place - we are producing beers the way they are supposed to be," said Mr Taylor. "We are prepared to do it properly. This is not rocket science but we have got extremely good personal brewers."

The company will begin bottling its own beer next year and is working on a website where customers will be able to buy beer and learn more about the real ale brewing process.

There are also company tours for parties of six to 12 people who are interested in the brewing process.

For more information go to www.copperdragon.uk.com or telephone 01756 702130.