The local beer scene continues to be trending. On top of the recent openings of Old Louisville Brewery and HopCat comes the announcement that a native Louisville brew, Sterling, is planning to reincarnate itself as a new local craft beer, Louisville Sterling. It will do so at 1300–1306 Bardstown Rd., in two historical buildings owned by the city.

The Sterling brand can be dated back to its Louisville inception in 1863, but over the years the brand was bought and sold several times, with production moving to Evansville, Indiana, the Pittsburgh and eventually to Wisconsin. The whole history is delineated on the Sterling web site. 

But now the brand will be called Louisville Sterling, the rights to the name having been bought by brothers Todd and Ken Jackson in 2012. The Jacksons have acquired the buildings in the Highlands from the city, and will renovate them for a craft house and tasting room. One of the buildings had been a city police station, and the other a telephone switching station at one point, and later the home of the Louisville Ballet. The city had used the buildings for storage, but recently declared them surplus and offered them for sale.

According to a city press release, “Louisville Sterling’s goal is to restore the historical structures for the purpose of establishing a craft house and tasting room and to move local production back to Sterling’s original home of Louisville.” 

Some environmental testing of the sites needs to be done to determine the extent of the renovations necessary for a public building. If no problems arise, construction on the buildings is slated to begin in the fall.