THE Black Sheep Brewery is to double its beer brewing capacity, creating the potential to produce 26 million pints a year.

The Masham, North Yorkshire, brewer revealed it is to embark on the £3m project in a fortnight's time.

The news comes 24 hours after it was announced that fellow village brewer T&R Theakston was on the verge of returning to the Theakston family.

The Black Sheep Brewery evolved from a rift in the Theakston family which forced Paul Theakston to start out on his own when brewer Scottish and Newcastle (S&N) bought the company started by his great, great grandfather.

Paul Theakston told The Northern Echo he was glad the family was regaining control of Theakston's as it would safeguard the small brewery: He said: "To be honest, I am happy. The various battles and twists and turns that went on in the past are very much in the past.

"It is a full 20 years ago and there is a lot of beer under the bridge.

"Black Sheep has been established 11 years almost to the day and we have been carrying the flag of family brewing in Masham while Theakston has been occupied by S&N.

"The best news about this is that with the brewery itself in Masham coming back under family control, that is a great insurance policy for the future."

Mr Theakston admitted he had "emotional attachments" to the brewery but said he had his hands full coping with the success of his own brewing empire.

He said he had no intentions of trying to buy back the family brewery himself, but was using the lessons learned from the family feud in the 1980s in his current expansion plans.

Theakston's ran into problems originally when it needed capital from external finance houses to acquire the state-owned Carlisle Brewery to satisfy demand for its beer.

This time around, Mr Theakston said his Black Sheep company had generated the money for expansion.

"I have perhaps learnt a few lessons from the past. I have an allergy to institutions."

Black Sheep employs about 90 staff and last year earned pre-tax profit of £715,000 on a £10.4m turnover.

Doubling the size of its brew house will enable it to gradually build its current production of 45,000 barrels to 80,000.