A couple of years ago, Michelle Russell had a very particular taste in beers.

Pale IPAs and blondes were her drinks of choice and she would never have dreamed of sipping a treacly stout or tooth-suckingly acidic ale.

"Now I love porters and the sour beers. That's down to trying to have an open mind," she says.

That is the ethos that drives her craft beer and spirit festival North Hop, which encourages festival-goers to try new and interesting tipples created in Scotland by independent craft breweries and distilleries.

It's an industry that is catching up with whisky due to companies such as BrewDog, which began brewing from the back of a van in Fraserburgh in 2007 and is now worth an estimated £300m and has pubs from Hong Kong to Sao Paulo.

Coupled with a relaxation of licensing laws leading to a rise in small-scale distilleries producing quirky gins, vodkas and even Scotland's first rum, the country is now very much in the grips of a craft revolution.

With a drinks cabinet bulging with Scottish products, the 31-year-old from Inverness wanted to showcase the best that the Highlands had to offer and, with her background in marketing and events, she launched North Hop in 2014.

Around 800 beer fans descended on the inaugural event, prompting Michelle to bring the festival back the following year with two dates in Inverness and Aberdeen, the latter selling 600 tickets in just two weeks, four months before the event took place.

Michelle says: "After we held our second Inverness festival, I realised that North Hop was something that could be taken further afield across Scotland and potentially further south."

Perhaps surprisingly, North Hop has an appeal far beyond beer-loving men. Michelle says her festivals are split 50/50 between male and female attendees.

She puts this down to the wide variety of other drinks on offer and the inclusion of a cocktail lounge enabling those with a taste for spirits the chance to have a concoction created before their eyes with top independent distilleries such as Rock Rose and Eden Mill also showcasing their gins.

Michelle adds: "We are changing people's perceptions - people come along to North Hop hating gin, they try it and later leave loving it."

Exploding like a vigorously shaken tin of Special Brew, North Hop has decided to add Edinburgh and Glasgow to its 2016 line-up, with the festival in turn transforming from a small-scale event to a four-venue Scotland-wide tour from the central belt to the Highlands.

Handed a glass etched with the festival's logo upon entering, participants can ask brewers to pull them a half or 2/3 pint while they chat about their products, with people eager to speak with the brewers and to receive recommendations.

"Opinions and tastes have changed, people are more inclined to try craft beers," Michelle explains.

"There is a lot out there now and there is also that element of 'shop local' - it makes people feel good that they are supporting Scottish companies."

Part of North Hop's popularity is also its personality, with venues lined with hay bales for festival-goers to sip their chosen drinks from while consuming handmade scotch eggs, buns piled with pulled pork or scoop spoonfuls of whisky ice cream.

Photobooths filled with all manner of props ensure the social media hashtags are filled with selfies of oversized sunglasses and feather boas as local bands entertain the crowds on the stage and artists 'live draw' graffiti-style cartoons on wooden boards.

The festival may be transformative for the industry, giving start-ups the chance to showcase their concoctions to new audiences, but for Michelle, North Hop has been life-changing.

"When I first set up North Hop, it was really supposed to be a sideline project that I could do with my clients, which I could work in around my festival," she says.

"Now I just don't have the time and can't take on [new clients with Snow Marketing]. At times that can be frustrating but I love what I am doing. I'll be sitting at 2am doing emails and constantly getting content and things prepared [for North Hop]."

As North Hop prepares to set up for the second of its four festivals in Scotland this year at Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre from April 30, Michelle says: "There are still new distilleries and breweries opening up every week. I don't think the industry will be letting up any time soon, it has the longevity and it just keeps growing."