The next time you're drinking a Saranac product you may notice the bottle of your beverage looking a little different. Some of the bottles featured in the 12 Beers of Winter and Spiked Holiday Seltzer are the actually the color green!

What You Need To Know

  • You may still find Saranac products in stores in green bottles over the holiday season

  • The Utica-based brewery began bottling its 12 Beers of Winter and Spiked Holiday Seltzer in green bottles back in September due to a glass shortage

  • The bottles were stored away at the brewery and used for the products since there wasn't many other options

But did you know that wasn't the original plan by the Utica brewery?

Recycling continues to be important to the F.X. Matt Brewery in Utica however, the green bottles you may find in stores in some Saranac packaging actually have more do to with a glass shortage.

We spoke to the brewery president Fred Matt who says the facility experienced a "glass shortage" back in September due to the pandemic.

The Utica brewer was told by its glass supplier it could only get a limited supply of amber and clear colored glass.

After unsuccessfully making calls to other suppliers, the brewery ended up using about 100,000 cases of green glass it had in storage for some of its products.

You may notice cases of Saranac's 12 Beers of Winter and Spiked Holiday Seltzer in green bottles. So far, customers don't seem to mind the new look.

"People have been great about it.  We've had absolutely no complaints and you know I'd say one of the things that has kept us going over 132 years is getting creative and being free to foot. You know in these COVID times, you've got to pivot and look for opportunities and we've done that," said F.X. Matt Brewery President and COO Fred Matt.

The brewery even put a little note inside some of the seltzer packages which read, "in every gift there's always a surprise."

The Utica brewery has since received shipments of glass enabling them to go back their normal bottling. Consider yourself finding a rare commodity if you're able to find a green Saranac bottle.