So I've been cooking brats for years, mostly just cooking them direct over propane and only doing anything flavor-wise to the onions/peppers. I've dabbled using beer and not and have had mixed results. I was gifted a big green egg by Mrs Lavawoman and finally decided to get brats right. I did this cook with Publix's greenwise lump charcoal and blocks of cherry.
1) 10 brats into giant frying pan. Add 1 whole sliced yellow (1 large, or 2 medium) and 1 whole sliced white onion. Add 1/2 stick of real butter. Add 1 TBSP (or more) of minced garlic. Worcestershire sauce to taste. Salt and pepper to taste. Cover fully with Yuengling Lager. Let sit for 2 hours.
2) Set smoker indirect for 230-250 degrees. (My Medium BGE was set at 250, dropped to 230 when the brats went on, and climbed back to 250 quickly)
3) After 2 hours, remove brats from beer and place immediately onto the grill. Start the beer/onions simultaneously on medium heat, covered. Once it begins to simmer well, remove the lid for the remainder of the cook.
4) don't touch the brats for at least 30 min. As long as the temp hasn't spiked, you're safe to wait for 40-45 min. Flip at that time.
5) give it another 20ish minutes after you flip the brats and toss the peppers in with the beer and onions
6) about 20 minutes after you toss the peppers in, check the brats, they should have a beautiful red-smokey color, and likely just need to be flipped and left for another 10/15 min to be certifiably cooked all the way through yet still juicy. At the same time, your onion pepper beer amazingness simmering on low-med heat should be reduced to perfection.
7) put some Dijon mustard on a bun and you know what to do with the rest
I would love to hear some of the resident experts take on doing brats, as I am just an apprentice, but it's going to be hard to get me off the recipe above because oh mah gawddd it was glorious.
What beer brats do you use?
