Hardee's Debuts Strawberry Biscuit Ale as an Homage to Its Hot-Selling Breakfast Carb

It was a risk, more than 40 years ago, for a burger purveyor like Hardee’s to add made-from-scratch biscuits to its menu. But it paid off when the freshly-baked breakfast staple began selling like, well, hotcakes. As an homage to the Southern favorite, Hardee’s is launching the famous carb’s first boozy brand extension. Tapping into the collaboration trend between quick service restaurants and other industries, Hardee’s is dropping Strawberry Biscuit Ale—made with 200 pounds of fully baked, savory biscuits—as a limited-time product. The artisanal beer comes from Southern Grist Brewing Co., a hometown neighbor of Hardee’s in Nashville, Tenn. And while it targets the burger brand’s 21-and-over loyalists, executives believe it can potentially open up a dialog with discerning foodies. “We think it will appeal to the core QSR audience,” Chad Crawford, chief brand officer of the Hardee’s parent company CKE Restaurants, told Adweek. “It’s a full-bodied creme ale with a hint of strawberry jam and buttermilk, a very tasty expression of our biscuits, that we think can expand into the culinary mindset.” The program fits into the Hardee’s strategy of pursuing “cultural connectivity,” Crawford said, and celebrating a product that has been “a hallmark, a huge piece of our brand story” since the 1970s. Combo meals The move follows a raft of partnerships that have intertwined food, beverage and other categories with “some feeling more genuine and authentic than others,” Crawford said. Among the recent attention- and headline-grabbing examples: KFC and Crocs for fried-chicken inspired (and scented) shoes, PepsiCo and IHOP for a maple syrup-flavored cola and White Castle and Telfar for a uniform overhaul. Those deals are separate from, though kindred spirits of, the increasingly frequent celebrity tie-ins from McDonald’s, Dunkin, Popeyes and other players. Hardee’s, meantime, intentionally made biscuits the star of its promotion rather than “bringing in borrowed equity” from an actor, musician or artist, Crawford said. ‘Crushable’ beer Reaching out to a locally-based business like Southern Grist “made perfect sense to us,” timed to coincide with National Biscuit Month, Crawford said. Southern Grist approaches its products “with the same mad scientist mentality that we use for our new menu launches and knows how to deliver on flavor,” Owen Klein, vice president of global culinary innovation at CKE Restaurants, said in a statement. After some testing, the brewer “nailed it,” Klein said, producing “an amazing crushable beer.” Southern Grist, with more than 900 different flavors under its belt since its 2016 launch, had never infused beer with biscuits before and was “intrigued” by the challenge, according to Jared Welch, co-founder and production manager. Southern comfort Strawberry Biscuit Ale will roll out at Southern Grist’s Nashville taprooms and at events such as the Nashville Brew Fest on Sept. 9. Expect to see food pairings from the Hardee's chefs. The adult beverage will be available several ways for those outside Hardee’s stomping ground. Consumers can get it shipped from Southern Grist to states like Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Nebraska and North Dakota, among several others. Southern Grist retailers in Tennessee, Wisconsin, Illinois, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana and Kentucky will also carry the brew, and app-based delivery service Tavour will offer it in additional markets. A Dive Bar You Can Eat: Miller High Life Creates a Beer-Infused Ice Cream on a Stick

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Hardee's Debuts Strawberry Biscuit Ale as an Homage to Its Hot-Selling Breakfast Carb

The fast food chain partners with Southern Grist Brewing for a fruit-laced limited-edition beer

T.L. Stanley

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T.L. Stanley