For anyone reading this outside the state of Kentucky, welcome to a teaching lesson on how to properly pronounce the city of “Louisville.” It is Loo-a-vuhl. Not Lewis-ville. Not Louie-ville. LOO-A-VUHL. Against the Grain Brewery has released the newest beer to their portfolio, a beer that educates the rest of the world on the correct pronunciation of their city, Loo-a-vuhl Pale.

Against the Grain has beer all over the world; South America, Asia, Russia and Europe and one thing that Sam Cruz, co-founder of Against the Gain, noticed was customers always asked how he pronounced Louisville.

“There is one common thread amongst the English-speaking customers and colleagues that we have is that when they say “Oh, you’re from Louisville. Do you call it Louis-ville or Loo-a-vuhl?,” Cruz said. “They try to say it but they can’t really say it.”

“But everybody where we are [in Louisville], the dialect, is “Loo-aVuhl,” it’s a thing,” Cruz said. “So that kind of came to mind.”

Against the Grain not only took the opportunity to educate its customers on the proper way to say the name of their city but to educate beer drinkers on the history of the Pale Ale in Louisville.

“A lot of people talk about Kentucky Common as something that was born here and it was,” Cruz said. “It was interesting but nobody really knows what it is, but I can tell you unequivocally that I grew up as a beer industry professional but also as a beer aficionado and lover here in Louisville hung up on Louisville’s Pale Ales.”

“It really kind of hit me that like that’s what this place was known for, for a long time,” Cruz said. “And as time has gone on, Louisville has kind of lost it.” 

The Label

If you are familiar with the Against the Grain brand, you are aware of their bold packaging and beer label. Each beer label features one of their six characters: Session, Hop, Whim, Malt, Dark, and Smoke to represent the different styles of beers they make.

When deciding the label art for Loo-a-vuhl Pale, Against the Grain wanted their Hop character to embody one of Louisville’s most eccentric celebrities. The Loo-a-vuhl Pale portrays the Louisville journalist and writer Hunter S. Thompson as the Hop character.

“For Loo Pale, the thing we were really interested in was representing Louisville in a way that also was cohesive and synonymous with who we are as a company,” Cruz said. “I’ve heard it a lot and I see it, people say “Oh you guys are crazy, you do this or that.” They really don’t understand unless you are one of us and you’ve been indoctrinated into my company how actually eccentric a lot of what we are is. I wanted to embody that. In the best way that I could do that and reference Lousiville was thought the most eccentric Louisvillian that the world would know and that was Hunter S. Thompson.”

 

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Loo-a-vuhl Pale will be sold in four-packs of 16 oz cans across Kentucky, Alabama, and Indiana. It will soon see distribution in North Carolina, South Carolina, Missouri, Wisconsin and Florida. For more information on the beer, visit atgbrewery.com.

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