The Finishing Touch For Beer Brats With More Flavorful Crust

From a culinary standpoint, few things go together better than bratwurst and beer, and we don't just mean munching a juicy brat with a cold helles in the other hand. In the pan, too, they are an excellent pair. Bratwurst cooked in beer, however, miss one key aspect of the ideal sausage experience: the beautiful, browned crust. All it takes to remedy this, though, is a little trip to the grill or skillet once the sausages are cooked through.

There are many reasons that cooking bratwurst in beer makes sense. For starters, cooking sausages in a liquid helps to ensure that they get cooked all the way through. On the grill, it can be a balancing act to ensure that these pork links are fully cooked in the center before they're burned on the outside, but this is not a concern when they're simmered. The beer bath also keeps the sausages nice and juicy, and, of course, imbues them with lots of extra flavor. What that slow cooker beer brat recipe won't do, however, is brown them. Fortunately, this is not difficult to fix.

Once the sausages have simmered in the beer long enough to be cooked in the center, all they need is a few minutes on a hot grill or in a separate skillet with a bit of oil. This post-beer sear will crisp up the casings and give them a lovely, caramelized flavor thanks to the Maillard reaction, which happens much more readily in a dry, high-heat environment. Plus, the lingering sugars from the beer may even enhance that caramelization.

Aside from the simmer and the sear, the ingredients that you choose for your beer brats are also quite important. For example, you want to avoid cooking with IPAs not just in this recipe but in general. The intense bitterness of the style is amplified as the beer cooks down and can be quite overwhelming. Mild lagers are a safe bet for beer brats, but you can also choose more flavorful beverages from the amber-to-brown side of the spectrum. Sweeter, maltier beers are great, just make sure that your choice isn't too hoppy.

Another point to consider is what else is going in the pot with those brats. You can simmer them in just beer, but by adding a few more ingredients to the mix you can both improve the flavor and add another layer to the finished product. Spices like caraway, coriander, bay, or pepper will imbue both brat and beer with nice aromatics, but alliums work great too. Cloves of garlic and sliced onions add plenty of flavor, but they offer much more than just that. Once the sausages are removed, the remaining ingredients can be cooked down further, with those beer-and-pork-fat-soaked onions making an excellent brat topping.

With all of that sorted, the only thing left to figure out is what goes on the side of those simmered and seared sausages. A good mustard is a must, and extras like sauerkraut and German-style potato salad rarely go awry with such a meal. Beyond that, all you need for serving is a few more of the beers in which the brats were cooked — cold this time.