Beer Brats

the The bratwurst is a summer accompaniment to a hamburger on the grill. While the hamburger can do with some leeway in terms of time and temperature on the grill, the bratwurst is less fortunate. Its delicate shell can tear at high temperatures, causing the filling to lose moisture and dry out quickly. Worse still, the quickly escaping sausage fat is ripe for a barbecue.

Fortunately, there is a way to avoid all of this bad news and ensure perfectly cooked sausages. Ready when you are!

Roast first, then beer

I love a great bratwurst and the key is that it’s cooked to temperature. In this case, 145º F. A sausage cooked on a hot grill can reach that temperature quickly. And often, not surprisingly, when we’re not looking. Maybe I have to blame the beer in my hand.

To ensure photo-worthy burn marks and moist stuffed pork, Sear the roast first on a hot grill, then slowly cook it in a beer bath right on the grill until cooked through. The first bite of gut will resist a bit before the meaty pork leaves you craving a second bite.

It is possible to cook the sausages in the beer first and then sear them, but the beer-soaked sausages will not sear properly. A pre-sear wins in both color and texture.

Initial searing takes just 2 minutes on two sides of the roast. Why only two pages? Fresh sausages straight from the butcher are usually cylindrical. However, if you’re like me and you’re always in a hurry, you probably buy brats in bulk. These brats are not round. Some brands are even curved. They still taste great, but the less round shape makes searing them on all four sides a kind of gymnastics on the grill. To accommodate any type of brat, it is a two-sided sear.

How to prepare the grill

Regardless of your type of grill, you should preheat it for at least 15 minutes with the lid on. When you open the lid to set the sausages down, you want the grill to be very hot and ready to use.

Keep it simple for the beer

For the beer bath, I suggest using a lager, or rather a pilsner. Lager beers cover a wide variety of styles, and some may impart unwanted or unexpected flavors. The beer here is primarily for moisture, so it’s important to keep its flavor profile simple.

Brats in the beer bath

When the sausages are seared, place them in a foil pan filled with beer and continue cooking over indirect heat. That means on the grill away from burning burners or coals. Sausages are done when they reach an internal temperature of 145º F, indicated by an instant-read thermometer. They can either be served immediately or left on the grill with the lid closed over very low heat to keep warm until needed.

Ideas for toppings

I just like my sausages with sauerkraut and stone-ground mustard. Thankfully, the brat can handle any topping you can think of like onions, relish, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, pickles, peppers — the list doesn’t stop. What is the best beer roast topping? The one in your hand!

Let’s grill!

More grilled goodness

• Easy Grilled Gochujang Chicken Thighs
• Cedarwood Salmon
• Grilled Carrot Dogs
• Grilled Cilantro Lime Chicken
• Grilled pork chops with adobo paste