Hardee's Turned Its 'Made from Scratch' Biscuits into a New Beer

Mike Pomranz
·2 min read
Hardee’s x Southern Grist Brewing Strawberry Biscuit Ale
Hardee’s x Southern Grist Brewing Strawberry Biscuit Ale

Hardee's may seem like your typical fast food burger joint, but when you dig into the numbers, something surprising emerges: The chain sells an impressive amount of biscuits. According to the brand, Hardee's Made from Scratch Biscuits have made up over 31 percent of their total sales over the past 18 months, moving over 300 million biscuits a year.

Now, in honor of National Biscuit Month, on September 1, Hardee's is giving customers a way to experience their biscuits like never before: drink 'em down in beer form.

Billing itself as "the first quick-service restaurant to be part of creating a biscuit-flavored beer," Hardee's has teamed up with Nashville's Southern Grist Brewing to create Strawberry Biscuit Ale, which is "infused" with 200 pounds of Hardee's Made from Scratch Biscuits. The resulting 5.2 percent ABV cream ale is said to offer hints of strawberry jam and buttermilk, making it perfect to drink "all day long," including while people are "indulging in their favorite breakfast menu items from Hardee's in the morning." Apparently, Hardee's is just going for it with this one!

Hardee’s x Southern Grist Brewing Strawberry Biscuit Ale
Hardee’s x Southern Grist Brewing Strawberry Biscuit Ale

"[Southern Grist approaches] brewing with the same mad scientist mentality that we use for our new menu launches and know how to deliver on flavor," stated Owen Klein, VP of global culinary innovation for Hardee's parent company, CKE Restaurants. "After a few rounds of testing, Southern Grist nailed it. An amazing crushable beer with subtle notes of fresh-baked biscuits, buttermilk, and strawberry jelly. All it took was a few hundred pounds of Made From Scratch Biscuits."

Meanwhile, Southern Grist seemed to imply things weren't that easy. The brewery apparently needed "months of planning and trial runs" to get the right mix of the beer's six ingredients: grain, hops, yeast, water, strawberry puree, and biscuits.

"Southern Grist has created more than 900 different flavor profiles since our inception in 2016, but never a beer infused with biscuits, so we were definitely intrigued when Hardee's approached us,'' the brewery's co-founder and production manager Jared Welch added. "That, paired with we are both Nashville based brands known for our innovation, we thought we could have a lot of fun with this partnership and bring something special to both our guests, and we have!"

Unfortunately, though Hardee's sells biscuits at over 1,700 locations across the U.S., the beer won't be quite as easy to find. Strawberry Biscuit Ale will only be available at the Southern Grist Brewing Co. Taproom in Nashville or via direct shipping to select markets nationwide. For more details, go to StrawberryBiscuitAle.com.