Living in an apartment, we don't always have the option of just tossing bratwurst on the grill for a few minutes after simmering in beer. Grilling or smoking is a bit of an event, requiring the schlepping of the grill or smoker over to the park along with all the accoutrements and then sitting over there and babysitting it. What we do is put about a half inch of beer in a good sized skillet and bring to a simmer. Toss in the bratwurst and cover for about 15 minutes, shaking the pan every few minutes to rotate the sausages (probably not necessary as you're really just steaming them at this point). After the 15 minutes, remove the cover and let the liquid cook off. Once it's cooked off, carefully watch and turn the sausages so each side browns. It will make a heck of a mess in your pan, and a good exhaust fan is helpful, but the results are excellent. As far as I can tell the beer reduces to almost a syrup, then caramelizes. It's easy to go too far and scorch the sausages, but it's not really tricky, just have to stay with them after the lid comes off. For an added bonus, you can deglaze the pan with a little (maybe a quarter cup) more beer, scraping all the good brown bits off, then before it gets stuck again toss in a half stick of unsalted* butter, dropping the heat to med-low. Once melted, toss in a julienned sweet onion. Let that caramelize over very low heat until it's browned and nearly falling apart(this will take a good long time). Then dump in a whole beer. The type is up to you. I usually use Guinness, but have had decent results with run of the mill pilsner. The resulting sauce will concentrate the flavor of the beer, so use what you like. Raise the heat to med-hi or so and reduce until it's somewhat thick. Finish with the other half stick of butter and you'll have a sauce that is complex, earthy and just freaking amazing.
*The residue of the sausages in the pan will contain all the salt you need. I've tried this with salted butter and it came out too salty.
As for the original question, I believe you've gotten your answer already, so pardon the thread hijack.
