A weekly look at the draft selection in beer-friendly bars across the country.

Kentucky might be better known for its whiskey distilleries than its beer prowess, but like most cities with more than a million people in its metropolitan area, Louisville has seen growth in its specialty and craft-beer market over the past few years due to the average American's increased awareness of the variety of beer available.

Louisville's beer scene is "getting better," says James Donald Gunnoe, co-owner of one of the reasons that scene has gotten better: the small beer outpost known as The Nachbar. "There are about five microbreweries in town and I think there's room for more."

About two and a half years ago, Gunnoe and his wife, Heather Burks, opened Nachbar with the intention of creating a "place we'd want to go to ourselves." Working from faith in their own tastes and desires, they focused on stocking the beers they drank and loved, attempting to offer the beer at prices they knew people could afford. Gunnoe puts it best when he states, "We cater to ourselves, and from there we're just really fortunate that people appreciate what we like."

Read more about Nachbar and see this past weekend's draft list after the jump...

But people appreciating the Nachbar isn't all luck. The bar was envisioned with a "neighbor theme." "Nachbar" actually means "neighbor" in German, creating a friendly connotation, along with the added bonus of having "bar" in its name. (A translation pun, one might say.)

And they offer good beer. Keeping with the theme, German beers are always popular, and they support those neighbors, trying to stock beers from all the local breweries. Unfortunately, though, Louisville lags behind in some respects.

"There's a finite amount of things we can get," Gunnoe admits. "For the most part, the things that come through the Lou are not way, way out of the way." He "does his homework," however -- often giving importers three to four months' advance notice -- and Nachbar always gets something unique for patrons, because, in the end, beer is the focus.

"We could have bought a big-screen TV," Gunnoe points out, "but instead we have an old 27-inch on top of a beer cooler." Amen.

Nachbar's draft list:

• Aecht Schlenkerla Urbock
• Bitburger Pilsner
• Konig Ludwig Hefe Weisse
• Kostritzer Schwarzbier
• Schneider-Weisse Aventinus Wheat Doppelbock
• Chimay Tripel
• Lindemans Framboise
• St. Bernardus Abt 12 Quadrupel
• Belhaven Scottish Stout (Nitro)
• Bluegrass Brewing Company Hell For Certain (Belgian dark ale)
• Browning's Java Stout
• Cumberland Brews' Expat IPA
• New Albanian Brewing Company Hoptimus (Imperial IPA)
• Bell's Two Hearted Ale (IPA)
• Left Hand 400 Lb. Monkey (Test Market IPA)
• Heileman's Old Style (American Lager)