diff --git a/bin/release b/bin/release
index 132dda7..bd54024 100755
--- a/bin/release
+++ b/bin/release
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ config_vars:
   PYTHONUNBUFFERED: true
   LIBRARY_PATH: .heroku/vendor/lib
   LD_LIBRARY_PATH: .heroku/vendor/lib
+  LANG: en_US.UTF-8
 EOF