Old Glossop microbrewery Howard Town has been asked to produce some unusual beers in the past, including a special ale for Oldham Athletic FC and a wedding brew called Ball and Chain.

But now it has had its strangest request – to provide the bitter in honour of a pub regular who died earlier this month.

And Jim’s Ale – named after Jim Shields – is set to go on sale in his ex-local, the Helter Skelter pub in Frodsham, Cheshire.

"It’s a great honour to have a beer named after you when you die, and I suppose it’s an honour for us to produce it," said co-owner Tony Hulme of the Hope Street brewery. And it’s not at all morbid, as the picture on the pumpclip shows Jim smiling, just how most of his many friends in the pub remember him."

Jim’s Ale is a 4.5 per cent draught bitter with hints of chocolate.

The Helter Skelter pub – which is featured in this year’s Good Beer Guide – already takes other Howard Town beers.

The brewery won the champion beer award for its Wrens Nest bitter in the SIBA awards for independent breweries in 2007.

Pub landlord Nick Broom said that Jim, who died in hospital but who had been expected to be discharged, had been an integral part of the pub for many years.

"His death came out of the blue – we were looking forward to him coming back to his usual spot in the pub. Jim worked in the chemical industry and this pub was almost like his office, he conducted some business here. He loved his horses and we even kept betting slips behind the bar. Jim was a real character who was always having a laugh and a joke. He was always doing something to cheer you up."