For Doug Scard, making a beer is like ‘making a meal’.

“It’s about balancing the flavours, getting your timings right, knowing what to add, when to add it and what to leave out,” the Here Be Monsters founder explained.

The craft beer brewery in Holmfirth sold its first bottle of beer (to Doug’s local corner shop) in December last year, and the one-man operation hopes to grow in the coming years.

Plans to expand the brewery from a one barrel plant to a five-to-eight barrel plant and establish dedicated premises are being helped along by a crowdfunding bid which has so far raised more than £4,500 of its £5,000 target.

Those who pledge money are rewarded with goodies including beer, t-shirts, brew days and even the chance to help design their own beer.

Doug said he had no intention of making Here Be Monsters a ‘behemoth of a brewery’.

Doug Scard's Here Be Monsters Craft Brewery, Cinder Hills, Holmfirth.

“I want it to be a great, successful little brewery,” he said. “I want it to provide a good income and great working environment for a small number of people, and I want to make great beer.”

Doug, a former web developer, had been home brewing on and off since his youth, and, wanting to leave the web industry, began to research how to turn his hobby into a full-time job.

He said: “I weaselled my way in through an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.

“I am particularly grateful to Tara and Elaine at Mallinsons, Nick at Briggs, Lisa at Marsden Riverhead Brewery Tap, and Richard at Bridge Brewery. All of these excellent brewers have taught me so much.”

Here Be Monsters produce full-bodied, heavily hopped ales, with a core range called ‘The Furies’ — English-style IPAs, one blonde, one red and one dark, all 4.9%.

Doug Scard's Here Be Monsters Craft Brewery, Cinder Hills, Holmfirth.

Doug also brews a ‘Cyclops’ range of ales made with one hop variety, with previous beers featuring Cascade and Simcoe hops.

“I make these to exactly the same recipe every time so it’s purely the hops that make each brew different,” Doug said.

The brewery, which was added to the Good Beer Guide this year, produces around 600 pints a week when brewing at full capacity.

The unusual name after Doug and his wife moved from Leeds to Lindley, then Holmfirth — and realised many of their old friends in the city had never heard of the town.

Doug said: “During a conversation in 2013, my wife and I realised that, as far as many city­folk were concerned, Holmfirth was completely off the map. This idea brought to mind how ancient cartographers would illustrate the unexplored corners of the known world with illustrations of terrifying beasts. The ‘Here Be Monsters’ brand was born that very moment.”

The Here Be Monsters crowdfunder campaign ends on October 22.

Anyone interested in making a pledge can visit www.crowdfunder.co.uk/HereBeMonsters to find out more.