diff --git a/lib/datasource/github.js b/lib/datasource/github.js
index 73630844739d8deb45cd8f7ef83d0f53cab93df0..3bbceb9d40d9db4c011ce9864b944f18b693d78e 100644
--- a/lib/datasource/github.js
+++ b/lib/datasource/github.js
@@ -50,16 +50,15 @@ async function getDependency(purl, config) {
   const { isVersion, sortVersions } = versioning(versionScheme);
   // Return a sorted list of valid Versions
   versions = versions.filter(isVersion).sort(sortVersions);
-  // Return sanitized versions (e.g. without leading 'v') if configured
-  if (options.sanitize === 'true') {
-    versions = versions.map(isVersion);
-  }
   const dependency = {
     repositoryUrl: 'https://github.com/' + repo,
     versions: {},
   };
   versions.forEach(version => {
-    dependency.versions[version] = {};
+    const v = options.sanitize === 'true' ? isVersion(version) : version;
+    dependency.versions[v] = {
+      gitRef: version,
+    };
   });
   return dependency;
 }
diff --git a/test/datasource/__snapshots__/github.spec.js.snap b/test/datasource/__snapshots__/github.spec.js.snap
index ecd57d7b77d368befaf694221cd807eac1467ae4..fa56ea87e2524c310ea4a864b097994a028efcb2 100644
--- a/test/datasource/__snapshots__/github.spec.js.snap
+++ b/test/datasource/__snapshots__/github.spec.js.snap
@@ -4,8 +4,12 @@ exports[`datasource/github getDependency returns cleaned tags 1`] = `
 Object {
   "repositoryUrl": "https://github.com/some/dep",
   "versions": Object {
-    "1.0.0": Object {},
-    "1.1.0": Object {},
+    "1.0.0": Object {
+      "gitRef": "1.0.0",
+    },
+    "1.1.0": Object {
+      "gitRef": "v1.1.0",
+    },
   },
 }
 `;
@@ -14,8 +18,12 @@ exports[`datasource/github getDependency returns releases 1`] = `
 Object {
   "repositoryUrl": "https://github.com/some/dep",
   "versions": Object {
-    "1.0.0": Object {},
-    "v1.1.0": Object {},
+    "1.0.0": Object {
+      "gitRef": "1.0.0",
+    },
+    "v1.1.0": Object {
+      "gitRef": "v1.1.0",
+    },
   },
 }
 `;