The Perfect Brat

Beer and Bratwurst is a summertime tradition around the Three Dogs household.  What makes it even better is that our local butcher, Dave's Country Meats, makes the best bratwurst that I have ever had.  He must have a little German in him for sure.  Anyway, I digress.

My stepfather Mike turned me on to bratwurst.  He lived in Milwaukee and Usinger's was the local brand.  When I first started making beer and brats, I committed two very egregious sins.  One, instead of a nice simmer, I would boil the crap out of the brats, shrivelling the skin and letting out all of the juices. Two, I would grill the crap out of them as well, leaving me with a burnt outside and a dry interior.  Never the less, I did like them.  But, over the years my technique has evolved so that I make, what I believe, to be the perfect grilled beer and brat.  Let me show you how.

First, beer selection is key.  This is one mistake I never made.  I never used Buttwiper or Chick Lite.  It was always a darker, full bodied beer.  Usually it is Yeungling Lager, but sometimes it would be a darker German offering.  For this cook, we used Dogfish 90 Minute Imperial IPA.

I love Dogfish IPA.  The 60 Minute variety is a nice session beer.  Clear, crisp, and sufficiently hoppy. the 90 Minute is not a session beer.  Hope bought me a case, not knowing that I usually buy the 60 Minute.  The 90 Minute is very hoppy, very full bodied, well suited for cold weather consumption, and only good for one or two at a time.  Therefore, this case has been relegated to cooking beer and perhaps some consumption when the pumpkin starts to get frosty around here.

So, I place the brats in a saucepan with the beer and turn the heat on low.  Once the beer starts to simmer, I allow the bratwurst to simmer for about two minutes, then I remove from the heat and sit on the side, keeping the saucepan covered.

You know you are done when the brat takes on that gray look of cooked sausage.  The casing should still be intact.

Next, I take the saucepan out to my hot grill and place the brats on direct heat.

As soon as casing starts to split and it has a nice brown crispy look, about two to three minutes, I flip them over and crisp the other side for about two to three more minutes.  Remember, they were cooked in the beer.  You are just browning them and adding that grilled flavor.

Once done, I place them back in my warm beer bath until served.

This is a good technique if you are making brats for the masses.  I place the warm beer in chafing pans, then the grilled brat goes into the pan.  With your Sterno keeping the pan warm, the brats happily swim in the beer bath until being picked out for a bun and some mustard.  If you are lucky and get the last one, it has sopped up a lot of hoppy goodness from the beer.  A true treat.

I placed my brat on a sausage roll with some diced sweet onion and a generous squirt of spicy brown mustard.  I like our local brand, Steel City Spicy Brown Mustard.

There you have it, the perfect grilled bratwurst.

Thanks for stopping by,

Bill

Approved Uses for Beer Other than Drinking...

Dips?  Sure.  I have had a great Beer Cheddar dip.  Sauces.  Yeah, see cheese again.  Bread?  Yes you can.  Chili?  You better add beer to your chili!  But, my favorite alternative use for beer is with Bratwurst.  Here is how you do it...

First, start with a good beer.  No Crudweiser or Chick Light here.  It has to be on the darker side.  I usually use Yeungling Lager.  When it is in season, I prefer Penn Brewery Octoberfest.  This time, I used Otter Creek Copper Ale...

First, you put your brats in a sauce pan, cover with beer, and turn the heat on low...

Once they come to a light simmer, keep your eye on them.  No rolling boil here.  You don't want to break the skins or you will have a Three Alarm Fire on your grill.  You just want to lightly simmer until they change color.  You'll finish cooking them on the grill.  Once they turn color on the bottom, flip them over and let the color change again.  Once they have a uniform gray color, remove from the heat and set aside.

While the brats were coming to a simmer, I thinly sliced half a sweet onion and started to caramelize in olive oil with fresh ground sea salt and pepper...

Once the onions reached that perfect brown caramel color, I deglazed the pan with some of the beer that I used to simmer the brats.  How much beer?  Just enough to cover the bottom of the pan...

Once reduced, I turned off the heat and set aside for later.  The beer will add a nice malty taste that will complement nicely with the brats simmered in beer.

By this time, the fire is ready and I took the pan with the brats outside.  Brats on the fire, flip when brown on the bottom.  It doesn't take long, about five minutes...

Once flipped, cook until the skins start to split, then back into the warm beer used for simmering...

I learned this technique at a huge summer party one year.  They were grilling huge amounts of brats.  they just placed them in foil pans with the beer to keep them warm and moist.  The beer also soaks into the brats adding more malty goodness...

Then, put your brat on a fresh roll, top with caramelized onions and spicy brown mustard.  Crisp skin, juicy, malty inside.  Heaven on a roll for sure.

Thanks for stopping by...

Bill