Beer Braised Brats with Onions (Recipe + Video) | Craft Beering (2024)

FAQs

What is the best beer to cook brats in? ›

Any beer will do, but pale lagers work best. Boil in the beer bath for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the brats turn white. Once your brats are cooked through, you'll want to sear them to achieve the crispy skin and grill marks we all love.

Soaking Your Brats in Beer = The Juiciest Brats Ever!

This step infuses the brats with extra flavor while also adding moisture to help keep them from getting dried out on the grill.

It can be flavored with garlic and marjoram. The more garlic the better. KNOCKWORST is a shorter, stockier German sausage made with beef, or beef and pork. It has a stronger garlic flavor profile and a characteristic 'snappy' texture to the skin when cooked.

Never boil brats in beer or any other liquid before or after going on the grill. Boiling brats actually leaches flavor from the meat. Steaming them with simmering beer and onion slices in an aluminum pan is okay to keep brats warm and juicy.

Yes, you should boil brats before grilling

After their soak in the brine, remove onions and peppers, which can be set aside to be cooked with the brats later, and add the mixture to a pot on the stove. Here, add a pinch of salt before it's time to boil the bratwurst.

Grill them to get some nice color on them, then add into the skillet with the onions. Add bratwurst and onions into the same skillet along with beer. Note: Do not poke holes in your bratwurst during the cooking process.

A digital meat thermometer is the only way to guarantee your brats reach a safe internal temperature of 160°F degrees. (The temperature continues to rise by a few degrees after cooking, so it's fine to pull the brats from the heat at 155°F). This rule applies to both fresh and pre-cooked brats.

However you choose to cook bratwurst, be sure the sausages are cooked all the way through. They should register 160 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, or you can cut into one with the tip of a paring knife and check that the meat is no longer raw and dark-pink; it should be moist and juicy and very light pink.

Many foods have “beer” in the name, but beer brats are some of the most iconic. These are nothing more than sausages that have been boiled in beer before grilling or roasting. Sometimes, you can find beer brats that are already prepared and ready for the grill.

Proteins unfold in the meat and casing when heated. During the unfolding process, proteins bind with fats, salt, pepper and seasonings to create texture and flavor. Parboiling speeds up the process that can create a mushy meat texture, develop rubbery casings and separate the casing from the sausage.

How do Germans cook bratwurst? ›

These sausages are meant to be fried and should never be boiled. Boiling the uncooked bratwurst will boil out the spices and destroy the flavor. Oven cooking (as with pellet "barbecues" which are actually ovens) is acceptable but yields a dryer sausage. Start with a cool grill and use medium-low flame.

The classic American lager could be the best beer to your taste, but you could be missing out. We suspect the caramel and somewhat sweet flavor profiles of reds, stouts and porters provide a nice complement the fatty, salty bratwurst.

Beer brats actually don't have any alcohol in them because the alcohol is burned off during the boiling process. Thus, beer brats are non-alcoholic and kid-friendly.

Boiling your wort for an extended period of time will evaporate 5-15% of the liquid, concentrating the sugars, thus leading to a higher gravity beer (more ABV). The concentration of the wort will also slightly darken the color of your beer.

Wheat beers are great for chicken and seafood. If you're cooking pork, beef, and lamb, you will need ales, porters, and stouts. Hearty meat goes well with belgian ales. Stews pair well with ale.

Complete the Wisconsin trifecta with Johnsonville Cheddar Beer Brats. Made with only premium cuts of pork and seasoned with a perfect blend of spices and real Wisconsin beer and cheddar, they're perfect for summer cookouts, Johnsonville Cheddar Brats easy to grill and taste great in a variety of recipes.

The brats have a great depth of flavor cooking in the beer, but if you'd rather eliminate beer as an ingredient, you can easily substitute chicken broth or vegetable broth! The onions become soft and soak up all that flavor in the slow cooker, making them a great topping for the sausages.