[Esel Mann]

So the beer brats were easy to pull off. All that was really needed was patience and attention to keep anything from burning. I did 4 brats and 2 kielbasa. They were fresh made from the meat counter.

First, I cut up 4 sweet onions and 2 green peppers and set aside. In that sauce pot I put heat (electric) on medium and about 1.5-2 inch of butter and some canola oil. Once the butter melted I put the onions and peppers in. This fill's that pot so it took about 10 minutes to get it to go somewhat soft and compress. I made sure to mix/toss it around so nothing stayed on the bottom to burn.

I had 2 1.5 year old 12 oz bottles of a pumkin ale kicking around so I used that. Next time I plan on trying out Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. Then I put two 12 oz bottles of beer into the onion/pepper mix and increased the heat to middle of medium high and brought to a boil. Again stirring things around so nothing got stuck on the bottom.

Once boiling, in go the brats and kielbasa. I then backed the heat off to just above medium. I let them boil for about 35 - 40 minutes. Flipping them frequently because they tended to want to float on the top (in my curry wurst they stay sunk). I then pulled them out and set aside.

I then increased heat to hi for the onions/peppers and beer. Again stirring frequently I did this for about 25-30 minutes. Basically to the point where the beer boiled off and onions peppers became exposed. I removed/strained the onions/peppers, put into a glass container and stuck in the oven (no heat) simply to keep warm.

Temp went back up to hi and the remaining beer boiled down to a point where it becomes syrup like. I then tossed the brats and kielbasa in that plus let them brown up a bit further. This was about 10 minutes if that. I plated the brats and kielbasa, and poured the remaining syrup into the onions and peppers and mixed around. Walla!

It was raining outside pretty good so that is why I browned them in with the syrup. Had it not been raining, I would have simply tossed them around in the syrup and then transferred to finish off on the grill.

So a bit of time is needed, but worth it. Prior to this I simply grilled the brats and reduced the onions/peppers in butter/canola oil. Never again. The beer really made everything taste like it should.