Hartford Business Journal

January 31, 2022

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17 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | JANUARY 31 2022 Cameron said more restaurants and taprooms will close if the pandemic continues. Adding to the challenges is the highly competitive market that exists across the state and nation, said Alex Blank, co-owner of the Twelve Percent Beer Project in North Haven, which opened a taproom at the beginning of 2020, and has only known operating in a pandemic. "It forced us to get creative," Blank said. "The quality of beer in this state has jumped significantly. Everyone has to keep raising their games. The bar is higher than it once was." Pappas said the alcohol market is the most competitive it's ever been. "We have 8,500 breweries across the country and there are so many different seltzer brands and ready-to- drink cocktails that are coming out," he said. Innovate to survive Twelve Percent is a unique business in the state's craft brewing industry. It operates as a collective of about a dozen craft brewing brands — such as Fat Orange Cat Brew Co., Skygazer Brewing Co., and Abomination Brewing Co. — that share a large brew space in North Haven. Those brands contract with Twelve Percent to produce, can and distribute their drinks. The company has roughly 30 to 40 employees, Blank said. "Our model is a little different. We're not selling so much of our own beer as we're selling our partners' beer," Blank said. While the taproom is relatively new, Twelve Percent started as an import business in New York about a dozen years ago. Some of Twelve Percent's earliest partners were Evil Twin Brewing and Omnipollo, brands that originated in Denmark and Sweden, respectively. "We started to help them contract brew stateside," Blank said. Twelve Percent has been successful with contract brewing, but Blank said it can be a "tricky" business. Contract brewers must meet strict taste and quality standards expected by both the brand and customers — any deviations will be noticed, he said. Pappas said contract brewing has been a great avenue for brands that are just starting up and want to test on a smaller scale. "I think it's become more of a viable business track for breweries," Pappas said. "It gives them a little bit more of an introduction into the market." He said Twelve Percent and Two Roads have been great contract brewers in the state, hosting several brands at their large brewing facilities. "As breweries grow they have two options: they can find larger spaces, add more tanks, hire more people, or they can enter a partnership with someone like us that basically helps supplement their production," Blank said. Some breweries, like Hanging Hills Employees at Thomas Hooker Brewing Co. in Bloomfield build boxes and monitor beer lines. By Skyler Frazer sfrazer@hartfordbusiness.com T homas Hooker Brewing Co. has been diversifying its portfolio recently by making some non-beer drinks, like its "Chill AF" CBD seltzer. "It's a really different sort of product," said Thomas Hooker Owner Curt Cameron. Cameron said he got the idea when he was asked to speak on a panel in Massachusetts that also featured representatives from two cannabis companies. After researching more about CBD — the non-psychoactive chemical in cannabis that has therapeutic use for some — he wanted to get into the market. He said he noticed that many other companies in the space weren't providing high-quality products, often relying on marketing to sell their goods. Chill AF seltzers tout high-quality CBD and come in several natural flavors, according to Thomas Hooker's website. "I realized how much garbage is out there in the CBD market space," Cameron said. "We've built our own lab and we're actually creating our own CBD- emulsions with high-pressure homogenization." Cameron said the CBD drink is Thomas Hooker's fastest-growing brand and each batch comes with lab results available online that show what's in the product. "[Customers] can look up every single batch that we've done to prove that what we say is in the can is actually in there," Cameron said. "We're selling it on science and transparency." Thomas Hooker Brewing Co. pivots into CBD drinks Thomas Hooker Brewing has created a lab where it experiments and develops new CBD-infused beverages. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER HBJ PHOTOS | STEVE LASCHEVER in Hartford, have turned to contract brewing to keep their brand alive. The company closed its Hartford taproom on Ledyard Street in 2020, but still makes its beer out of East Rock Brewery in New Haven. "That's one of the great things about contract brewing, linking up with other breweries that have distribution and an infrastructure to get your brand out there," Pappas said. Adding on Meanwhile, Cameron's brewery during the pandemic has still been expanding its in-person offerings as a means to attract more customers. Thomas Hooker's Colt building location on Huyshope Avenue just outside downtown Hartford opened a 5,000-square-foot event space late last fall, but Cameron said he's taken a cautious approach when booking acts and private events because of uncertainty around COVID-19. "We have no doubt that it's going to be successful long term, but the short term is what's scary to us right now," Cameron said. The Colt facility also has its own restaurant that will receive more future investment, Cameron said.

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