A Public Service Announcement from Cooking With Jack’s Abby: Beer Brats
We’re filing this one under “public service announcements” rather than “recipes” because we can’t really claim this recipe as our own—bratwurst in its many forms have existed for the better part of a millennium and the tradition of preparing brats using German-style lager began in Wisconsin during the early part of the 20th century. As an all-lager brewery, Jack’s Abby gives you a number of different options when making beer brats. Jabby Brau, Red Tape Lager, and Copper Legend (Octoberfest Lager) are all perfect beers to use while cooking beer brats. We cooked up some beer brats with the first batch of this year’s Copper Legend and the results were delicious!
Copper Legend Beer Brats
Ingredients:
- ½ dozen (or more!) bratwurst
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 liter (2 bottles) Jack’s Abby Copper Legend*
- 2 teaspoons red pepper flakes
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
Directions:
- Pour beer into a large pot and add onions and pepper. Bring to a simmer (don’t let it boil!) and add the brats.
- Cook at least 15 minutes. The longer the better, but avoid leaving them in for over a half hour—you’re poaching the brats in beer for flavor, not cooking them.
- Throw brats on grill over medium heat, turning every 3-4 minutes until cooked all the way through (depending on the heat, this should take a little over 10 minutes).
- Strain the beer onion mixture and serve onions as a topping.
* We would hate to think of you “wasting” beer, so if you’re cooking for a crowd, using the same beer to cook 2-3 batches of brats is fine.
Jimi Michiel lives in Framingham and is a member of the Jack’s Abby Dart Team. He has previously written about classical and jazz music but is excited to be writing about cooking and beer. He can be reached at jmichiel@msn.com
