diff --git a/src/pylorax/treebuilder.py b/src/pylorax/treebuilder.py
index a93018b2..19e39cfb 100644
--- a/src/pylorax/treebuilder.py
+++ b/src/pylorax/treebuilder.py
@@ -96,6 +96,7 @@ class RuntimeBuilder(object):
         The *best* way to control this is to have a single package in the repo provide 'system-release'
         When there are more than 1 package it will:
         - Make a list of the available packages
+        - If variant is set look for a package ending with lower(variant) and use that
         - If there are one or more non-generic packages, use the first one after sorting
         """
         if self._skip_branding:
@@ -104,18 +105,20 @@ class RuntimeBuilder(object):
         release = None
         q = self.dbo.sack.query()
         a = q.available()
-        for pkg in a.filter(provides='system-release'):
-            logger.debug("Found release package %s", pkg)
-            if pkg.name.startswith('generic'):
-                continue
-            else:
-                release = pkg.name
-                break
-
-        if not release:
-            logger.error('could not get the release')
+        pkgs = sorted([p.name for p in a.filter(provides='system-release')
+                                    if not p.name.startswith("generic")])
+        if not pkgs:
+            logger.error("No system-release packages found, could not get the release")
             return
 
+        logger.debug("system-release packages: %s", pkgs)
+        if self.vars.product.variant:
+            variant = [p for p in pkgs if p.endswith("-"+self.vars.product.variant.lower())]
+            if variant:
+                release = variant[0]
+        if not release:
+            release = pkgs[0]
+
         # release
         logger.info('got release: %s', release)
         self._runner.installpkg(release)