Watch: Family-run Walsall brewery making much-loved quality beer

Breweries have been a part of the region for centuries, providing the welcoming aroma of hops and yeast in the air across Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton and many different types of beer loved by thousands.

In the wake of the news of the planned closure of Banks's Brewery in Wolverhampton, the Express & Star wants to support our local breweries and show that there are still many out there producing quality beers to be enjoyed in pubs from Aldridge down to Smethwick.

As part of our Backing Our Breweries campaign, we are looking at different breweries do, how they grew and built up their reputation, what their products are, how they continue to run in what are difficult financial times and what makes them so special.

Set up by experienced brewer Andy Dukes and his wife Charlotte, AJ's Ales in Walsall came about after Andy Dukes said he had been working for other people who had been reaping the rewards of his labour and, after many of years of working in breweries, he decided to go it alone.

He said: "I started at Highgate Brewery, so that got me experience on a big scale, probably brewing at the same scale as Banks's, then when I left after it closed in 2010, I went to work for two micro-breweries in Worcester, so I gained a lot of experience on both the large and small scale.

"How AJ's came about was because the closure of Highgate forced me to do other things and when I was working for other people on that smaller scale, I was basically doing all the work and the gaffers and owners were reaping all the benefits, so I just thought that I could do this myself.

"I started it in my own building 10 years ago and it all works because I do all the brewing and delivering and my wife Charlotte does all the sales and accounts, as I would have struggled with that."