YUM! my SO is just now getting to work on Brats for supper.
He seems to be of Brown first, then boil in beer camp.
I’ve hear other people say they boil in beer then brown.
So what’s best, and why?
I myself just want to eat!
I’ve always boiled in beer and onions then grill the brats. Serve with onions drained from the beer.
MMmMmmmmm brats.
Boil first–gets rid of some of the fat.
Then brown, but don’t stick them with a fork or you’l have beer and fat everywhere…trust me I know.
Boil, then grill. Or just grill.
Now I’m all hungry… 
Update:
The SO breifly seared(sp?) the brats and is now boiling them in a pot of beer AND kraut.
To my horror he has pierced their delicate skins with a fork! What is he thinking? We are arguing about it at this moment! He’s letting their juicy goodness get away. It’s just not right. He insists that the juicy goodness should surround the brat. I’m not buying it.
Speaking as a brat-loving Milwaukeean, the correct sequence is to par-boil in a beer/onion/water mixture first, then grill to brown them. And as BottledBlondJeanie warns, don’t pierce them. (Sigh. Advice given too late.)
If you are serving a lot of people, say at a tailgate for example, then after they are browned you’re allowed to keep the brats warm in a beer/onion filled pan. Make sure this is a fresh mixture because you don’t want all the grease from the first par-boiling.
Mmmmm. I think I’m going to have to pick up some brats on the way home tonight. Mmmmm.
Boil them in beer (and kraut or onions depending on your taste). This is the opportunity to get rid of that nasty beer that a cheap friend left at your house. Grill them without poking holes. Escaping juice from holes causes big grease fires and lose of flavor.
Arrrrrgh! Heresy! Disaster!
Next time, grill them yourself the proper way as described above (boil w/ beer, grill, and above all else use tongs!) and enlighten the poor sap. Poor poor brats. 
wow, people sure have strong feelings about their brats!
I’m supposed to tell the guy from Milwaukee that his city sucks and that he thinks he knows how to cook a brat, but he don’t [sic]. He’s (the SO) still spewing in my ear! I may have to request that this gets moved to the Pit!
Mmmmmmmm BBQ’d brats!
The man is from Milwaukee and doesn’t know how to make proper beer brats?! It’s a shame. I’m origianly from Green Bay, but I know they make good beer brats the right way in Milwaukee.
Smack him upside the head with one of his pierced brats and ask him what he’d do if you pierced his brat. 
Man, now I want me some brats.
I am eating my brat now, and I must say this just isn’t right. There should be a sort of crunch when you bight through the skin. This is too soft. It does taste good, but I was expecting a little resistance.
Poor me.
I can’t imagine doing anything other than boiling first then grilling. I’m surprised nobody else puts other things in their boiling pot though. I usually put onions, minced garlic, basil, salt and pepper and jalepenos (omfg so good) in the beer/brat mixure and then grill to get the nice lines on them.
If only I had some brats…sigh.
As far as piercing the skin pre-boil, I haven’t decided yet. Piercing the skin seems to let more of the beer mixture get into the meat and moisten it up. If you don’t leave them on the grill very long, you shouldn’t lose too much of the juicy goodness.
Definitely boil first. Then grill.
I’m an advocate of pricking the skin of the brat late in the grilling process, to avoid the explosion of white-hot juices that can otherwise result. Not too early, though, or all of your juices run off.
One thing to remember is that the general taste of the beer itself will come through, so the beer you use matters. I like to use an ale or stout rather than a pilsner.
However, I’ve found that the boiling process renders the more subtle flavors of the beer irrelevant – especially if you add other flavoring agents. This means two things.
First, you can use an inexpensive beer (if you happen to have one around) without compromising your results.
Second, although beer that’s been cold and then gotten warm is liable to be a bit compromised flavorwise, it makes great beer-brat-boiling beer.
People, people! Milwaukee for brats? Are you mad?? Sheboygan is the bratwurst capital. On Bratwurst days, (First Thursday thru Saturday in August) you can see the cloud of smoke from grilling the brats hanging over the city from miles away!
Sheboygan Brat days
Get 'em from Miesfelds or Johnsonville and cook 'em any damn way you please. (OK, Johnsonville is about 10 miles outside Sheboygan City proper, but it is in Sheboygan County).
Personally, I like 'em blanched quickly in a little cider vinegar/water mix, then grilled carefully so they cook but don’t rupture. Do not slice them in half! Two to a bun. Top with a hamburger patty, garnish with your favorite things, and you have what we call an Oostburger!
enters fray
Depends on the casing.
I unfortunately don’t have a grill at the moment (except for an electric one, which doesn’t count), so that option isn’t available to me.
But, a natural casing bratwurst, marinated in beer, then grilled… Hmmmmm. Great texture, nice and moist.
Else I usually brown 'em to sear them and seal in the juices, then ‘boil’ them in the beer. If I do it the other way around, they tend to come out too dry for some reason.
(And yes, I have lived in Wisconsin, in various parts. Summerfest anyone? )
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Two best places in the whole wide world for bratwurst: A little bar made out of two Quonset huts across the road from Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin, and at a Schnell Imbiss across the street from the main gate of Kleber Kasern in Kaiserslautern, Germany. Both places boil first, grill later, prick last. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. The Knockwurst in K-town ain’t bad either. Forget the kraut, forget the onions. Go with hot sharp brown mustard. Es schmect immer gut.
BOIL.
That’s blasphemy, oh culinary heathens.
You’ll hate this. In Texas, bratwurst are getting really popular at barbecues, but all they do is grill them straight from the package - no pre or post-boiling.
It was a hard decision to make, but mr. singular and I just went back on Atkins. Can you boil in beer on Atkins? I know you can use orange juice to flavor chicken, since all the sugar burns off when you cook it, so I was wondering if the alcohol in the beer (and I’d use lo-carb beer) would dissipate on the grill?
And I’m ashamed to admit that I didn’t know you were supposed to boil them first. Glad I came across this thread - I bought two packages to put on the grill tomorrow!
So any Atkins bratters out there?
Well of course. That goes without saying.
The race is really for second place.
By the way Spavined Gelding, I grew up in Madison and went to college at Wisconsin… the brats on game day around Camp Randall Stadium are indeed delicious.