St. Lawrence University wins beer label

CANTON — A familiar landmark will be featured on bottles of Saranac Brewery's Adirondack lager and root beer.

St. Lawrence University won a monthlong donation competition over one of its rivals, Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, last month.

The prize for getting more alumni to donate in June was a special label on the Utica-based brewery's Adirondack lager and root beer, neither of which is available yet. The lager will be renamed "SLU Brew" and the root beer "Saints Suds."

"Both of the labels will feature the infamous Sykes clock tower and it commemorates the challenge with a reference to St. Lawrence winning the challenge," said Kimberly M. Hissong, director of alumni and parent programs. "The root beer label is similar."

The two brews are expected to be available within the next few weeks, according to Ms. Doyle. Both will be for sale online only at www.saranac.com. The lager cannot be shipped across state lines.

The "Settle the Score" challenge took advantage of interconnections between the alumni of both schools and ever-present sports rivalries.

"There are quite a few people with split alliances," university spokeswoman Macreena A. Doyle said. "Everyone knows our archrival is Clarkson with ice hockey, but in some other sports the archrival in many cases was Hobart and William Smith."

The two are connected beyond sports fields; there are many families with ties to both schools, and an SLU alumna who works in the annual giving office at Hobart came up with the idea for the challenge, according to Ms. Doyle.

Then there is the Matt Brewing Co. itself and the Saranac Brewery, owned by Fred and Carrie Hamilton Matt. He graduated from Hobart in 1981 and she from St. Lawrence the year after. Neither was available for comment.

St. Lawrence beat its rival by more than 800 donors; 2,347 to 1,530. The challenge was based solely on the number of donations, rather than the amount raised. Approximately $1.55 million came to SLU. Numbers for Hobart were not available.

Those numbers were the highest in the last decade for the month of June, according to the St. Lawrence University website.

The university said its giving rate went up 2 percent this year, from 33 percent.