Tasty Tuesday - Beer Boiled Brats

Let's recap. It's the middle of September, but that doesn't mean we stop making yummy food on the grill. Oh no. Around here, we grill all year round - so long as we can get a path to the grill through the snow, we're grilling at least once a week! Last week, I shared the bacon cheddar stuffed burgers we made over Labor Day weekend (again). They were awesome.

This week isn't a new favorite on the grill but rather an old one. If I'm going to have a bratwurst, I sure hope that it's a beer boiled one. The first time I mentioned this to my husband, back when we were dating, he looked at me like I was nuts. I looked at him like I was nuts. "You mean you've never had a beer boiled brat before?" I asked him incredulously. Apparently this is a regional thing.

Let me be the first to tell you: It shouldn't be. Beer boiled brats are awesome. They are the way bratwurst was meant to be eaten. They take some thinking ahead, but it's well worth it.

Beer Boiled Brats

Ingredients:
Bratwurst (we did eight for our group, but however many you're cooking)
Cheap beer (seriously, the cheaper the better - about 1/3-1/2 can per brat needed, depending on your pan)
Buns and toppings of your choice

Directions:

Get your standard bratwurst. These are the normal everyday ones that taste decent, but you're going to make them magnificent.

Place them in a pot and cover with the beer. When you pour the beer, be careful. You want the beer to not get all foamy and frothy as much as you can help it, so pour slowly to minimize that. You want them covered by a half inch or so. For mine, that took about 2 cans of beer. The rest, I saved for later. If you're making a lot of them for a large party, use a disposable roasting pan and boil them on your grill. Turn the heat up enough so that they're boiling but lightly, just higher than a simmer.

Leave them along for a good two hours or so. Check them periodically to see how the level of beer is doing. You want them to stay covered the whole time, so every half hour or so, check on them and add some more beer to top them off.

After two hours of the beer jacuzzi, place your brats on a medium temperature grill. Grill them for just a couple minutes on each side, and that finishes them off perfectly. Add them to their buns and put the appropriate toppings on them (*cough* brown mustard *cough*), and you're good to go.

You'll never go back to normal bratwurst, I promise! Or if you do, I don't want to hear about it....

Enjoy this and more with Blessed With Grace and Tempt My Tummy Tuesday. Also posting now with A Southern Fairytale and her Mouthwatering Monday.