With summer on the horizon, Sean Brennan’s recipe for Park Grill Beer Brats is getting the nod from charcoal grillers all over Bowling Green.

“We’ve been doing this for a couple years,” Brennan said. “Actually, it came out of the pandemic. We were open only a month, at Arlyn’s, and then we closed.”

He wanted something hot to eat while they were shut down. Their outdoor beer garden has had classic park grills as part of their original business plan.

The beer boil cooking method has become so popular at the bar that they are providing the disposable aluminum half size catering pans with the beer. Customers provide their own vegetables, brats and aluminum foil. The pan will fit about 12 bratwurst or eight chicken thighs.

He prefers the Aldi Party Pack, with a dozen German-style bratwurst.

Brennan recommends any standard charcoal briquettes in a 7.7 pound bag.

“We had a couple come out here with a coffee can full of charcoal, and it’s not enough. You need to sustain the heat,” Brennan said.

Technically, the brats are parboiled in beer, but also browned on the grill. It’s key to add aluminum foil covering on the pan.

“You don’t want the beer to just boil down and be gone, plus it will steam the vegetables,” Brennan said. “Only put beer to the top of the meat.”

The amount of beer used varies, based on how big the pan is and how much of the space is taken up by the brats.

“The secret to a good clean park grill is cleaning the grill with the aluminum foil,” Brennan said.

Dave Johnston, one of Brennan’s friends, was joining him for the meal. He had done similar cooking in Wisconsin.

“It was in Milwaukee, 1984, post college. It was my first job, living in Milwaukee. This is the way they cooked them in the Brewers’ stadium for all the pre-game cookouts, for all the tailgating. That’s the way you do it,” Johnston said.

“This is the part everyone has an opinion on. In the ballpark, do they like them really crisp, or just with a grill mark?” Brennan asked Johnston.

There was total agreement between the two on when to pull the brats off the grill.

“Once they open like that, you don’t want to cook them much more, because you will start to dry out,” Brennan said, pointing to the first one with a split in the skin. “(The grease) will also start spot fires on the grill. Yeah, if you leave them unattended, when you come back they will be all engulfed in flames.”

Because the cooking is being done over charcoal, Brennan makes sure to turn the pan at least once for the boiling phase. He also rotates and turns the brats for the browning phase.

“I don’t like to leave them too long, because you can’t tell which ones are getting done more. You get hot spots,” Brennan said.

Some alternate combinations that work well with his method are chicken thighs with cider.

“I also like Tony Packo’s hot dogs in the Czech Lager. They’re both Eastern European,” Eric Jones, one of Arlyn’s owners, added.

“People do a Budweiser bratwurst. That would be a Czech Lager, because Budweiser is a pilsner, just like our Czech lager,” Brennan said. “Regular Budweiser, 40 or 50 years ago, it was actually a heavier beer. It was a traditional pilsner, because pilsners are lagers.”

Johnston will sometimes put red pepper flakes in with the vegetables.

Brennan also like yellow or red sweet peppers, but also jalapenos, depending on whether his friends like it a little spicier. He has also done cabbage, but carrots and potatoes are his favorite option, for a bigger meal.

It’s never complete without a beer to drink.

Brennan works at Arlyn’s Good Beer as a second job. He said he enjoys the people and positive culture centered around craft beer. His day job is as the right-hand man for Jim Palmer Excavating.

He grew up in Bowling Green and went to Bowling Green State University, where he received his construction management degree. He has two sons, one living in Austin, Texas, and the other just moved back to Pemberville.

“My parents moved here in 1961, so my dad could go to college,” Brennan said.