New imports coming to Ohio

Some interesting beers to keep an eye out for:

New imports coming to Ohio
Latis Imports has teamed up with Stagnaro Distributing in Cincinnati and Superior Beverage in Columbus and Cleveland to bring several new beer brands into the Buckeye State. Ohioans will soon see PALM, the top selling ale and specialty beer in Belgium; Steenbrugge Abbey Ales, including Steenbrugge Blond, Dubbel Bruin, Tripel and Wit-Blanche; Rodenbach, a Flemish sour ale from Brewery Rodenbach; and Brouwerij BOON, which produces BOON Kriek, BOON Oude Geuze and BOON Framboise. Stagnaro announced the partnership Thursday and said the imports will hit the Cincinnati market in bottles and draft in March. But people can try them today and Saturday at the Cincy Winter Beerfest at the Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati.

In other beer news, we went to "beer school" at The Rail last night. (BTW, my burger was delicious at The Rail was delicious! I've been there a few times, and it gets better every time - and it's never been not good. That's encouraging.) The featured brewer was Matt from Rockmill Brewing, which is located near Lancaster, Ohio. I first had Matt's beers at a beer fest in Columbus last year, so when I saw Rockmill on the schedule at The Rail, I was pretty excited. We tried five beers: a pretty basic wit, a saison, a dubbel, a tripel and a barrel-aged tripel. They were all pretty good, but the dubble or the tripel would be my favorite.

Here's Matt enjoying his barrel-aged beer:

Sorry for the shitty picture!

I even have a task to complete today - I'm going to take a four-bottle (750ml!) box to a local business so they can try out the beers. I'm hoping for more distribution up here. Apparently you can find Rockmill's beers at some places up in Cleveland and at all of the Heinens locations. I'm hoping for some Akron/Kent distribution, so of course, I had to provide some suggestions. I love me a Belgian-style, and it's really neat to have an Ohio brewery that focuses on them.