Perfect Pour: What’s the Right Beer for Brats?

There’s an adage in photography that the best camera is the one you have with you. The Drink Wisconsinbly Week in Review Editorial Board always held a similar belief when it came to selecting a beer for boiling bratwurst. Whichever kind was in the fridge was the right one for the job. Not surprisingly, there are individuals who have given beer selection more careful consideration. An article published earlier this week did a deep-ish dive on the subject.

Their expert began by paying homage to Wisconsin, noting our affinity for bratwurst and how we prefer to heat up in a locally-made beer when we hear the Call of the Bratwurst.

Is that pandering? Perhaps. Did it work? You bet it did!

Next, they get to the core of the issue for those who aren’t lucky enough to live here and have access to Wisconsin’s embarrassment of beer riches. Their expert recommends some German beers to pair with cured meats from the Rhineland, suggesting German-style lagers such as helles, märzen, dunkel, Vienna, or Oktoberfest. Pilsners and bocks also get a nod. Amber ales, hefeweizens, or weissbiers without fruit flavors will also work.

That’s a long list. Maybe it would have been faster to skip to the part where they say what not to use when drawing a hot bratwurst bath. Those include beers with pronounced flavors or scents. Sours, fruit-flavored beers, Imperial IPAs, or Imperial Stouts tend to overpower the taste of the sausage and put a real damper on the tailgate party.

The digest version is that if all this is a beer you like to drink, it is most likely going to produce a flavor you enjoy for your brats. Imagine that.

So, without even trying, we were doing it the right way all along.