diff --git a/project/scripts/release b/project/scripts/release
index 886e6629b1..13795b3d53 100755
--- a/project/scripts/release
+++ b/project/scripts/release
@@ -93,6 +93,8 @@ fi
 declare -r version=$1
 declare -r publish_path="${release_server}:${release_path}"
 
+[[ `java -version 2>&1 | grep "java version" | awk '{print $3}' | tr -d \" | awk '{split($0, array, ".")} END{print array[2]}'` -eq 6 ]] || fail "Java version is not 1.6"
+
 # check for a git command
 type -P git &> /dev/null || fail "git command not found"