diff --git a/bin/release b/bin/release
index 9a70a4753c965e0c6111be2947033b95ff9392ad..f541a93c67b4c16ebe8ac880135f38570593222d 100755
--- a/bin/release
+++ b/bin/release
@@ -13,7 +13,7 @@ config_vars:
 EOF
 
 
-if grep -Fxq "pylibmc" $BUILD_DIR/requirements.txt
+if (grep -Fxiq "pylibmc" requirements.txt) || (grep -Fiq "pylibmc=" requirements.txt)
 then
 cat <<EOF
   LIBRARY_PATH: .heroku/vendor/lib