Save a draft beer, save a dog. That's the idea behind a new project by Thomas Hooker Brewery. The Bloomfield company is offering draft beer at a discount and part of the proceeds help a dog rescue.
Inside Thomas Hooker Brewery on Tobey Road, it's a tough time for draft beer. With restaurants and taprooms across the country closed, the demand is gone.
"When we look at our sales, 30% of it is to bars and restaurants, which of course is draft beer. Overnight 30% of our business dried up. Unfortunately, we had already kegged off a lot of that draft. The problem is that draft is nearing its expiration, and we'd prefer not to dump it down the drain," said Thomas Hooker Brewing Company President Curt Cameron.
Cameron says they took back the draft that was on the market, leaving them with 6,000 to 7,000 gallons at risk of going bad. That's when they came up with the Draft Beer Adoption Program. To go along with the new idea, they made a video that took inspiration from a well-known commercial, showing abandoned kegs of beer.
"The idea is to give beer a temporary home and help give a dog a permanent home," said Cameron.
Guida's Dairy donated gallon jugs, and the brewery took online orders for a gallon of draft beer at a cost of $10 each. A portion of the money goes to Dog Star Rescue, which has had fundraising dry up since the pandemic.
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"It has impacted our complete rescue. We have less opportunity to get dogs out of shelters, less opportunity to vet dogs," said Dog Star Rescue President Dan McCabe. "We've been impacted almost every area of the rescue."
The volunteer-run nonprofit leases space from the brewery, and they've had a close relationship for years.
"It's an awesome idea, and Hooker took it upon themselves to do the video," said McCabe.
The video and program were such a hit that the brewery has received 700 orders for more than 1,400 gallons for pickup on Saturday. They'll fill the jugs that morning and load up cars as customers pull up.
Due to the overwhelming response, they've had to stop taking any more orders for this Saturday.
"One of the reasons we're shutting down is we'll be out of gallon jugs, but we're having more ordered. We'll have them for next week, and that’s why we decided we're going to do this again next Saturday," said Cameron.
It's a program looking to give beer and dogs a good home.
You can order gallon jugs of beer online for next weekend starting Tuesday, May 12, at https://hookerbeer.com/ for pick up the following Saturday, May 16.
