This Brat Tub Beer Bath Will Elevate Your Sausage Grilling Game

Touchdown Tailgate Brat Tub simmered in beer, grilled, with awesome sauce

Bratwurst (braht vurst), better known as brats, are great tailgating food. They are the official food of University of Wisconsin and Green Bay Packer fans. UW is based in Madison, which calls itself the “Brat Capital of the World” and is home of the giant annual “Brat Fest” over Memorial Day weekend. They serve more than 200,000 brats each year. Only slightly more modest, Sheboygan, an hour south of Green Bay, calls itself the “Bratwurst Capital of America”. Nearby, in Middleton, is the Mustard Museum (a must visit, pun intended).  Dave Hoffman, a.k.a. Fritz Boygan, tells me that in Sheboygan, in the days before smoke detectors, the German settlers liked to cook brats on the indoor stovetop in a frypan. So when they cooked in the backyard, it became a “fry out” or an “outdoor fry”.

Conversely, one of the most popular ways of preparing bratwurst in Wisconsin is by starting with a brat tub, a combination of three local faves: Brats, mustard, and beer (remember, Milwaukee was once the beer capital of the nation). In the classic, traditional brat tub, the meat is simmered in beer, then grilled. Or is it visa versa? Fights have broken out over the proper sequence.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can make the sauce at home, chill everything, and then finish the brats at the game during your next tailgating adventure. This recipe is designed for cooking on a grill, but you can do them indoors on a griddle, in a frying pan, or under the broiler. Wear your “Kiss the Chef” apron. Every time I make this dish I splatter myself with glop. Better still, buy one of my apron designs.

For this recipe, buy plain brats, not those cheese-filled aberrations. Unlike hot dogs, brats are not precooked at the factory so they must be heated to at least 155°F in the center to be safe.

Does the beer penetrate?

I remember that, in my high school years, condoms were made from animal casings, so I asked the AmazingRibs.com science advisor Prof. Greg Blonder to run some tests to see if the beer actually gets into the brat, if you need to puncture the casing for it to get in, or if simmering in beer is yet another myth.

So he got some beer and mixed in some copper sulfate, a green dye that is heat stable and moves through meat in a manner similar to salt. The dyed beer went into a non-reactive pot, brought to a simmer, and in went the brats. He punctured some with a fork, and even cut the ends of a few to see if the beer entered more quickly without the condom in the way. When he removed them and sliced them open, the dye had clearly penetrated, about 1 to 2 mm, but surprisingly, the depth of penetration did not increase much whether they were simmered for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or 45 minutes.

Also, the beer did not penetrate bare meat on the cut end or through punctures any more than through the intact casing. Said the scientist: “In later tests not involving toxic copper sulfate, I tasted slivers of brat at the surface and deep in the interior. These tests confirmed the flavor was concentrated in a thin surface band. The band of flavor is around the thickness of the pork grind. In other words, flavor molecules are not diffusing through atomically small pores, but initially flooding in around the edges. Then, as you can see by the more diffuse edge on the 45 minute brat, very slowing oozing towards the center.”

So now we know “Simmering in beer actually does add flavor to a thin band of meat under the casing; puncturing with a fork does not accelerate beer penetration (but does cause the brats to shrink a bit); and a 15 minute simmer is nearly as effective as 45 minutes.”

Alas, the process goes both ways. If you simmer brats in beer, a little flavor gets in, but flavor also gets out because beer is a solvent, and because juices are squeezed out as the meat heats and shrinks. But with this recipe, no harm is done because anything that seeps out is captured in the sauce.

Brat Tub Tailgating

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The Wisconsin brat tub combines three local faves: Brats, mustard, and beer (remember, Milwaukee was once the beer capital of the nation).

Serve with: American lager.

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Course:

Dinner

,

Lunch

,

Main Course

Cuisine:

American

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Makes:

Servings: 6 sandwiches

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Takes:

Cook Time: 1 hour hour

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Ingredients

US Customary – Metric

• ▢ 6 brats
• ▢ 6 bratwurst/sausage buns (try for something better than pasty hot dog buns)
• ▢ 3 12 ounce American lager beer
• ▢ 2 medium onions
• ▢ 2 tablespoons butter
• ▢ 1/2 cup Kansas City style barbecue sauce
• ▢ 1/4 cup Dijon-style mustard
• ▢ 1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce

Notes:

About the buns. In Wisconsin they sell “sausage rolls” or “sausage buns” which are thicker, firmer, and have a more substantial crust than a hot dog bun. They make a difference.

About the ketchup. You can substitute Kansas City style barbecue sauce for the ketchup.
About the hot sauce. I usually use Tabasco Chipotle flavored sauce. Add more if you wish.

Optional. Add 1/4 teaspoon of liquid smoke.

Metric conversion:

These recipes were created in US Customary measurements and the conversion to metric is being done by calculations. They should be accurate, but it is possible there could be an error. If you find one, please let us know in the comments at the bottom of the page

Method

• Prep. Slice the onions into half rings. Most brats come curved. Bend and flex them so they are close to straight. They are easier to turn on the grill and they fit the buns better when they are straight, allowing more room for the sauce.
  
• Fire up. Set up the grill for 2-zone cooking. Open one beer and drink it while you are cooking. This is the way it is done in Wisconsin. You cannot cook unless you are drinking.
• Simmer the beer. Use a pan (you can use a disposable aluminum pan) for the brat tub. Dump in the the other two beers and bring them to a simmer on the grill or on the side burner.
• Simmer the brats. Add the brats to the beer and simmer for about 15 minutes to absorb flavor. Roll the brats around if they are not covered in beer and simmer 15 minutes per side.
• Grill. Remove the brats and grill them over high heat just enough to get some brown onto the skin. Brown is the Maillard reaction, where tons of new flavors are created by the heat. Just a minute or three on each side. I like to lay them between the grates at first so they are easier to turn. Yes, I know the grill marks are going the wrong way, but this way I don't incinerate one side. Don't let them go beyond 160°F (71°C) in the centers.
  
• Amp it up. Add the onions, butter, hot sauce, BBQ sauce, and mustard to the pan with the beer. Stir.
• Cook again. Put the hot tub on the hot side of the grill or if you have a fancy side burner you can use that. If you wish, you can do this indoors. Cook it down to a gloppy sauce. This will take 20 to 30 minutes. Slip the brats into the tub and coat with sauce.
  
• Grill the buns. Open the buns and place them cut side down on the direct side of the grill to warm and toast slightly. Go ahead, butter them first if you like. I like. When the buns are on, do not walk away. They can go from toasted to black in a minute. If a corner does burn, you can scrape it off easily.
• Serve. Serve the brats on the buns with the onions and the sauce. Not too much sauce, you want to taste the brats. Serve World's Easiest Potato Salad or German Potato Salad on the side. Serve warm sauerkraut with caraway seeds on the side too. Or heap them on top of the brat. And don't forget the beer. Put extra brats back in the sauce on a warm, but not the hot part of the grill.
• Three words: Beer Cheese dip! Take the leftover sauce, heat it up, and mix in about two cups of grated sharp cheddar cheese. Instant Beer Cheese Dip! Dip and scoop Ritz Crackers, Saltines, corn chips, toasted slices of baguette, or herbed crackers.

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