East Anglian Beer and Cider Festival in Bury St Edmunds to honour well loved team member, Mike Shave, with festivale and dedicated bar

The organiser of the East Anglian Beer and Cider Festival says the festival will pay tribute to one of its own this month as the event’s preview beer is set to be launched in his memory.

Martin Bate, of West Suffolk Campaign for Real Ale (Camra), described Mike Shave, who died in November last year, as ‘a lovely man who did everything he could to make life nice for people’.

Mike, from Thurston, used to order all of the beer for the Bury St Edmunds festival, last doing this in 2021, and was West Suffolk Camra’s webmaster.

Martin said: “With the website he did a hell of a lot of work to keep the site up to date and going.

“Since I took over the festival in 2017, he spent hours and hours ordering all of the ales, making sure they got to site and got home afterwards – not an easy job, but he took it in his stride.”

Mike was also an avid beekeeper, with a number of hives in the Bury St Edmunds area, and 12kg of his honey is being used in this year’s ‘festivale’.

Called Honey Gold and produced by Nethergate Brewery, the ale will be launched tomorrow at the brewery’s shop in The Traverse, Bury St Edmunds, and will be available in local pubs during the run up to the event.

A share of the profits of casks sold will go into the festival’s charity pot.

Martin said: “This is the first time Mike’s honey will be used and we have around 60 casks for distribution and at least two will be at the festival – we are sure this will be really popular with drinkers.”

The 31st East Anglian Beer & Cider Festival, at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, between August 23 and 28, will also pay tribute to Mike.

Di, Mike’s widow, will formally open the festival and the showcase bar in front of the church’s altar will be dedicated to him.

Martin said: “Though he was a fan of many breweries, we will have 24 beers from Lacons, Colchester Brewery, Green Jack and Oakham Ales on there as they were some of his favourites.

“We will also have beer mats, which will be based on the festivale’s pump clip, around the event and in the pubs around town too.”

The organiser said Mike was a key person of the festival and a wonderful, amenable, lovely bloke to be with.

He added: “He did everything he could to make life nice for people – he was well loved and will be missed so much by Camra, his friends and family and his village.”