Groton - A supermarket mixed a marketing idea with a brewery and got Avery Point Amber Ale, a beer with the image of the University of Connecticut's Avery Point Lighthouse on the bottle.

Groton Town Historian James Streeter, who served on a committee that worked for six years and raised $500,000 to save the Avery Point Lighthouse, said he's pleased.

"It's an important landmark," he said. "It's important to Groton. It's important to the maritime community. It could be on a wine bottle, it could be on a soda can. It's the recognition that Avery Point is there."

Big Y supermarkets collaborated with Berkshire Brewing Co. of South Deerfield, Mass., to brew the ale and two other beers and name them after local landmarks, said Steve Thibault, corporate beer and liquor sales manager for Big Y supermarkets.

The two other beers are "River Valley I.P.A.," named for the Connecticut River Valley, and "Mount Greylock Porter" named for Berkshire County's Mount Greylock, the highest natural point in Massachusetts. The beers are one pint each and are only available at Big Y stores.

"The three locations that we have on our labels are really a reflection of our stores," Thibault said. "So we have one (store) as far north as Adams, Massachusetts, and that is where Mount Greylock is. River Valley I.P.A. gives significance to how we've grown."

The supermarket also wanted a location in southern Connecticut and chose the lighthouse.

The 55-foot-tall lighthouse on the campus off Shennecossett Road was the only one built when the U.S. Coast Guard ran a training center on the property. Workers completed the lighthouse in 1943, as a memorial to all lighthouse keepers. Its lighting was delayed about one year due to concerns about hostilities during World War II.

Then the Coast Guard left, and the lighthouse deteriorated over decades. The university finally considered tearing it down. In 2000, a citizens group rallied to save it.

"There were eight or ten of us that took six years out of our lives to save and relight and restore that lighthouse," said Streeter, co-chairman of the Avery Point Lighthouse Society with Ron Foster of Groton and Dale Treadway of Gales Ferry. The restored lighthouse was relit in October 2006.

Big Y has had the idea of creating a local product to represent its growth for awhile, but it took time to make it happen, Thibault said. The supermarket and brewery have been partners since 1994, and the grocery was one of the brewery's first accounts.

"We came up with a recipe and we created it and we had to drink quite a few beers before we got it right," Thibault said.

The supermarket has sold nearly 10,000 bottles so far. Streeter bought 16 bottles Thursday and plans to give one to everyone on the lighthouse committee.

"It was pretty good, too," he said. "I liked it."

d.straszheim@theday.com

Twitter: @DStraszheim