The Biblical advice, "To everything there is a season," applies to
beer as well. Take the F.X. Matt Brewing Company, a 114-year-old family-owned
operation in Utica, New York, that produces the award-winning line of Saranac
beers.
The brewery released its first seasonal, a dark lager called F.X. Matt's
Holiday Beer (since renamed Season's Best), in 1983. That was during the infancy
of the craft brewing movement. Most beer drinkers, at the time, regarded a
Christmas beer as a six-pack of Budweiser decorated with holly sprigs or a case
of Beck's you splurged on to impress the relatives. Probably the only other
brewery, at the time, doing a holiday seasonal on a regular basis was Anchor
Brewing Company of San Francisco. "My father F.X. and Fritz [Maytag] were
pretty good buddies," laughs vice president for marketing and sales Fred
Matt, when apprised of this fact.
Today, F.X. Matt produces a beer for each season. The current offering,
Saranac Oktoberfest, is brewed with two-row and crystal malts and hopped with
Saaz and Tettnang. With a two-month window for sales, Oktoberfest is the
brewery's fastest-selling seasonal, asserts Fred Matt. "We're
oversold!" he exclaims. As of the second week in September, the company had
already shipped out 90 percent of its scheduled production. Spring and summer
seasonals are moving targets, changing yearly. In 2001, F.X. Matt greeted spring
with Saranac Single Malt, a malt varietal brewed exclusively with Scottish Maris
Otter malt and hopped with Fuggles. Summer saw the return of Mountain Berry,
flavored with several varieties of berries native to the Adirondacks.
In addition, every year the brewery releases its Saranac 12 Beers variety
pack, containing an assortment of year-around offerings, limited-release beers
from previous years, and two new products not available elsewhere. This year's
collection, according to marketing coordinator John Brennan, will contain past
favorites Saranac IPA, Caramel Porter, Stout, Single Malt and Chocolate Amber.
Making their debut will be Saranac Hefeweizen and Dunkel.
In addition, the 12 Beers package will include, for the first time, Saranac
Light, an all-malt, 130-calorie product aimed at light beer drinkers who, says
Matt, haven't been totally satisfied with the taste of mass-market brands.
Saranac Light has been available in select markets in New York State and in
Rhode Island, and is set for a wider rollout in early 2003.
Producing so many seasonal beers is expensive in that the brewery needs to
print up new labels and packaging for each new brand. However, as Brennan
observes, special-release beers "create talk value around the whole Saranac
brand."
Ironically, one of the few seasonal styles that F.X. Matt hasn't offered is a
bock, traditionally America's favorite seasonal beer. "I haven't seen a lot
of bocks sell well," says Fred Matt. "A lot of people's perception is
that it's from the bottom of the barrel. Our goal is to overfulfill our
customers' expectations, and bock doesn't fall in that camp."
Matt is concerned about seasonal creep...the tendency of breweries to release
their limited-edition products sooner and sooner each year. "I've seen
summer beers coming out in early March," he mentions. He prefers the term
"limited release" because it better reflects the company's philosophy:
move the beer through the system, run out and make the public holler for more!
Matt relates the story of a Virginia customer who, frustrated because he
couldn't find Saranac Caramel Porter, rented a plane and flew to Pennsylvania
to stock up. He later estimated that he had paid the equivalent of $60 a case.
"He wrote to the brewery, asking, Did I get screwed? We told him, Of course
not!"
Good news for that customer: Matt says he's toying with the idea of
re-releasing the Caramel Porter for his spring 2003 seasonal offering.
Saranac beers are available in 13 states from New England down to North
Carolina, and as far west as Ohio. The Saranac 12 Beers package will go out
October 10 and should be available by around Halloween, promises Matt. The 2002
edition of Season's Best will be shipped as of November 1 and should be on store
shelves easily in time for Thanksgiving.
