Bratwurst-a-thon

[BuyLowSellHigh]

As you can see, many ways to get to an acceptable end result.  A few thoughts ...

The easiest would be NePaS version, just beer cooked and if you want some smoke flavor add some liquid smoke.  But you'd probably have a hard time looking like you slaved on that one.

Longest and most intensive would be do them all in the Bradley in stages.  This would also give you the benefit of the best smoking conditions.

In between would be braise in beer first then finish with some smoke.  Easier than the full Bradley treatment, but less than ideal smoking conditions - smoke has a hard time "sticking" to wet stuff.

Any of these can give you a very decent result - choose your path.  A few final thoughts, remember this is fresh (not cured) meat.  When cooking you want to get through 140 °F as quickly as possible.  If cooking in the Bradley from  the fresh raw state, follow HabS advice and have the preheated temp up to at least 225 °F before loading it up and keep the load sane.  If cooking first in beer, bring the beer up to near a boil before adding the cold Brats for the same reason.  A hundred Brats (about 25 lbs) will put a quick chill on that pot.  That many Brats will probably displace about 3-4 gal's of beer.  You should have twice that volume of beer at the ready and when fully loaded not have your pot more than 2/3 rd's full, meaning a 15 gal pot for a single setup, or split it to two (or more) smaller pots.   Finally, when finished if you are going to hold them in a beer bath shoot for a holding bath temp of 150-160  °F.  You want to be above 140 F for safety, but you don't want to cook them to death. 

[Habanero Smoker]

When cooking fresh sausage, you may want to preheat to 250°F. You will have a drop in temperature once the sausage is loaded, so the 250°F will help with the recovery time; you don't want that temperature to be below 225°F for too long. Once your cabinet is back up to 225°F, then adjust your temperature controller.

Let us know how things work out.

[Payson]

Thanks for all of the great advice! The event is December 4th. I'll let you know how things turn out!