Saranac Is Back

IN A REMARKABLE DISPLAY OF LET’S-DO-IT, THE F. X. MATT BREWERY in Utica, New York, has got its bottling line back in operation.

You may recall that the brewers of Utica Club and Saranac beers suffered a major fire in their bottling/canning building just 31 days ago. (See the Firegeezer reports HERE, HERE and HERE.) The fire was confined to the bottling building, so the brewery operations were able to resume within a couple of days. Matt made quick arrangements with the High Falls Brewing Co. in Rochester to can the product.

Observer-Dispatch

Even though the roof came down onto the third floor during the fire, destroying the canning machinery, the bottling lines on the 2nd floor suffered much less damage. Now, after reconstruction, a temporary roof and fresh paint all around, the bottles are being filled again. Canning will continue at High Falls for a while yet.

June is usually the highest-sales month for Matt and they will be taking a hit this year because they haven’t been able to build up store stocks leading up to this week. The draft business was able to be maintained, but that is mostly local. Currently the brewers are working double-shifts, but the bottling isn’t expected to be back to full production until the end of this week.

WKTV