It's bottling day at the Thomas Hooker Brewing Co. and the brewing room is filled with noise and activity.

Curt Cameron and a half-dozen employees are busy bottling about 300 cases of the company's blond ale and the clink of glass bottles and hum of the capping and labeling machines reverberates through the Bloomfield warehouse that has housed Hooker's operations since March 2007.

Business is a little slower this time of year, which means brewing and bottling in smaller batches, but Cameron, the company's founder and president, wants to make sure that Hooker's distributor, package stores and restaurants get fresh beer.

"All it takes is one bad experience to lose someone forever," said Cameron, who tries to make sure that no beer older than six months is sold to the public.

Cameron and his staff, which has grown from two to eight full-time employees since the business opened, don't have to worry about trying to keep busy during the slow season, though. The brewery is in the middle of a $400,000 expansion that will almost double the number of brewing tanks from 9 to 17 and includes the creation of a 2,200-square-foot entertainment area that he hopes will attract corporate events and enable the brewery to offer home-brewing courses.

That would supplement the Friday night beer-tasting events that draw between 150 and 300 visitors, depending on the season, as well as the Saturday tours that average 100 to150 visitors year-round.

"It's one of the best things we do to build the brand," Cameron said. "Otherwise how do people get to know you?"

Cameron said the expansion would never have happened and the tours, which include samples of some of the brewery's 11 beers, might have ceased two years ago without the help of Connecticut beer-distributing behemoth Hartford Distributors.

Cameron remembered the summer of 2008, when he sat on the front steps of his Tobey Road brewery contemplating ending his relationship with a different distributor that owned the rights to distribute Hooker beer in Connecticut.

We almost closed completely," Cameron said. "We were done.

"They weren't selling our beer. Our sales levels were horrible," he said. "There was no way to make the company work. We were lucky enough to convince Ross Hollander to take a look at us."

Cameron said he was introduced to Hollander, who then visited the brewery with his son, Brett, and sampled the beer.

"He's just an open-minded guy," Cameron said. "He realized they hadn't really jumped into craft brewing."

Hollander, president of Hartford Distributors and a Bloomfield resident, said he saw an opportunity to help a local brewery get its product to market and bought the rights to sell the Hooker brand.

"They brew a good product and bring a local flavor to what we do," Hollander said.

Hollander said the company took its obligation to market the Hooker product seriously and has worked to get it placed prominently in package stores and promoted in restaurants..

Cameron said that in addition to product placement, Hartford Distributors' team approach, from the executive level to the sales force, was a key.

"They're very good at mobilizing a team," he said, adding that while Hooker has experienced "good, solid sales growth," he considers what he calls "mind share growth" to be equally important.

"I can be in my own vehicle with a Hooker decal on it and get a thumbs-up from someone [in the car] next to me," Cameron said.

Hollander said he also appreciated Cameron's enthusiasm and support for local charitable efforts and organizations.

"He's a very thoughtful person," Hollander said.

Cameron's support for local organizations includes a partnership with the Oak Hill School, which regularly brings men with learning and physical disabilities to the brewery to put together boxes. Cameron said it would probably cost less in the long run to automate the process than pay the men, but he enjoys their visits.

Cameron has also designated the $5 donation for Friday night samplings to be sent to the Village for Families and Children in Hartford, which he estimates has received about $30,000. Cameron is also on that agency's board of directors and has a personal connection to the organization.

"I was adopted from there as an infant," he said.

Lesa Cavallero-Laraia, vice president of marketing and communications for the Village for Families and Children, said Cameron has become one of the agency's biggest cheerleaders.

"He is a valuable member of our community and a true advocate for children in need," she said.

Cameron said that the brewery, which had about $1 million in sales this year, is on the "jagged edge" of profitablity and experiencing growth of 30 percent to 35 percent a year. Hooker beers are now distributed in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, central Florida and Atlanta and will soon be in Northern New Jersey.

But Cameron said he is in the midst of pulling the Hooker brand out of the market in Rhode Island and Maine due to issues with distributors and freshness concerns.

"If you don't have a good product it won't matter how many states you're in," he said. "There's no short cuts. You need to take the time and do it right."

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