F.X. Matt (Saranac) April 7 Party & Release

Yeah, they call it a "Prohibition Party" but I'm not going to - it's !@#$ Repeal Day, the end of Prohibition. (Well, even more exactly, the beginning of the end - 3.2w beer legalized, with full Repeal coming in December 1933 with the 21st Amendment).

I imagine some of the promotion of this event will be the brewery claiming to be "The first brewery to open after Prohibition" or some other not-quite-accurate claim. They did get the first 3.2 permit in the US, but, of course, had to wait until April 7 to sell beer just like every other brewery with permits in states that changed their laws by April 7 to allow beer sales (only about half, IIRC).


Also a strange line-up, with some beers not related to that era. Fort Schuyler was originally the flagship of a another local brewery, the Utica Brewing Co. , but by the 1970s it was Matt's - then called the West End Brewing Co., cheap AAL beer. ("Wait," you ask, "the brewery whose flagship beer was Utica Club had a "cheap(er) beer?" Yup.) I recall a newspaper story about a beer tasting (maybe in a college class) in which Ft. Schuyler was picked as the "winner".

"Maximus", I take it, refers to their Maximus Super, a higher ABV beer, sorta in the vein of a malt liquor, but the brewery did not use that term.


Pretty sure I had a draught version of Utica Club Porter (at a local bar near the brewery, but it might have just been Utica Club Dark?) although I think Utica Club Bock was gone by the time I started drinking in NYS, I think - most US brewers had seasonal bocks into the 1960s, and a few held on past that, of course.

Utica Club Cream Ale lasted as a bottled product into the 1980s, at least - and most people who had it (not a lot) preferred it to the much more common Genesee Cream Ale, but that might just have been a matter of rarity.

I guess Matt is going for a "nostalgia" market for these, people who can remember drinking those beers (or watching dad and grandpa down them). F X Matt did once have a much more "craft-ish" line up in the first decades after Repeal.

 

Around that era, Matt's Saranac variety packs, at least the Christmas ones, used to contain 12 different beers, and some of the beers included would change from year to year. (Below 1996 and 2001 versions)

 

Well, how many different beers make up a 'Variety' pack? Hampden in MA put both their lager and ale in a 12 pack in the '50s and C. Schmidt's & Sons had 4 different beers in a pack in 1985, the year Matt first released the initial (and only at that time) Saranac-branded beer.

Those are the first two I thought of that I have easy proof of, I'm sure there were others. 12 different beers is unusual (I think AB did it not too long ago with different takes on Budweiser?) but for just more than one beer in a pack? Nah.

 

Well, legally, the TTB's Beverage Alcohol Manual's definition of beer types says:

And the labels said "Stout and Lager":
... but, otherwise, it could be any stout and lager F X Matt brews, maybe even ones they brew exclusively to be mixed to make Saranac Black & Tan, between 40%-60% of each.

Yeah, as noted, some of the beers in the various packs over the years were one-offs, or were only available certain years.

 

"Colonial" era roots? Older than that - I thought the Robert Smith India Pale Ale Brewing Co. dated back to the Roman period? How else can one explain the guy in the chariot in their Repeal era ads?

Although it turns out that Robert Smith was only hired as the brewmaster at the brewery in 1837, and didn't purchase it until 1845 - so that 1774 year for his ale is kinda stretching things seeing as he was born in 1802.

Cause it sucked? Just one man's opinion.

Wait, a former Ortlieb and C. Schmidt & Sons brewmaster (who was hired after Ortlieb closed and their brands sold to Schmidt) agreed.

But, yeah, neither the regular Schmidt nor that short-lived Golden Classic impressed me much, so some Tiger Head would have been a nice replacement for some of those bottles.