Brewer Krishna Rajiv has swapped the Indian city of Bangalore for the Black Country to live out his dream of becoming a brewer. The 23-year-old now lives in Sandwell.

He works full time at the Black Country Ales brewery in the Old Bull’s head pub in Redhall Road, Lower Gornal. And although he says the weather is not quite as warm as he is used to, he is pretty happy with his choice of home. Krishna, whose mother, father and younger brother still live in Bangalore came to the UK in 2007 to study the art of brewing.

He also studied distilling at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh – a university renowned for its brewing course.

Krishna studied his undergraduate degree in Chemistry, Botany and Microbiology at Bangalore University and originally began studying for a masters in Microbiology in India but he felt the course was not maximising his skills and so he started looking around.

Having a strong background in science, he hit upon the idea of doing a masters in brewing and distilling but found just three university with a strong reputation for it – one in Germany, one in North America and the course he studied in Edinburgh.

He spent 12 months in Edinburgh completing the course and at the end he moved to Solihull to stay with family friends.

Krishna said he found it hard to actually get a job after his course ended as the majority of breweries were looking for staff with experience.

But Martin Wilkins, the director of Black Country Ales who run the Old Bull’s head brewery, took a chance on the young brewer.

Martin said: “We advertised the position of assistant brewer in a specialist magazine because we were looking at increasing capacity and needed someone to help.

“I interviewed quite a few people and Krishna stood out because he was so well mannered and enthusiastic and he had the technical skills in place even if he did not have the experience.”

Krishna joins brewer Guy Perry who has been with the brewery for around four years.