In all the years that I have been making pulled pork I don’t think I have ever used the same recipe twice. Most of the pulled pork recipes that I have made come out decent, like this vinegar based pulled pork recipe while a few others have been duds. Many of the recipes call for large amounts of paprika but to me it just doesn’t taste right in pulled pork. Then I came across this crock pot pulled pork recipe with beer that looked intriguing, and with a few tweaks I made it my own.
At first I couldn’t decide if I wanted to try it or not. I am not much of a beer drinker but I do enjoy it in recipes so I figured I would give it a shot.
The results were simply amazing! In fact, this Pulled pork recipe is so good that next time I will probably leave out the barbecue sauce and just serve it on the side.
Below is the exact recipe I used. I normally use pork shoulder but Aldi had boneless pork butt roasts on sale for $1.49 a pound. The one I bought was huge, around 8 pounds but you can use a smaller one and just adjust the ingredients as needed.
The entire recipe cost about $15 to make. It would have been perfect for a pot luck dinner but since it was just the three of us we had enough for four meals total (we had the BBQ for two nights then I froze two more family size portions for future meals).
To be honest, I normally don’t measure when I cook and with this recipe you really 
can’t mess this up, so don’t worry too much about adjusting the measurements exactly. You can also substitute a little onion powder for the minced onion, just decrease the amount to about a teaspoon.
One last thing before I get to the recipe, I usually like to sear all sides of the meat before putting in the crock pot because this is supposed to really add a depth of flavor, but with such a big roast I skipped this step and the results were still amazing. It also meant one step and one less dirty pan to wash!
Crock Pot Pulled Pork Recipe with Beer
- 1 Large pork shoulder or pork butt roast (around 6-8 pounds)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon dried minced onion
- 12 ounce bottle of beer (I used Sam Adams but any beer should do)
- 28 ounce bottle barbecue sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray’s)
- Sandwich rolls or corn bread
Directions:
Place pork roast in large crock pot fat side up and season with salt, pepper, garlic powder and minced onion. Pour beer over and around entire roast.
Cover and cook on high for about 5 hours or low for 7-8 hours or until meat is falling apart.
Remove roast from crock pot and set on large cutting board. Empty liquid from crock pot, reserve liquid.
Remove excess fat from pork and shred meat with two forks. Return to crock pot.
Stir 1/2 to a full bottle of barbecue sauce into the to shredded pork. You can also skim the fat off the reserved liquid and add some to the pork if desired. I added about 1/2 cup of the broth back into the meat and would probably have added more if I didn’t add the barbecue sauce.
Place meat on sandwich rolls or serve as is with a side of corn bread. I served on sandwich rolls along with this delicious corn recipe and macaroni salad
Crock Pot Size
If you plan on making a large roast then you will need at least a 6 quart crock pot. I love my crock pot, which has a locking lid which makes it great for taking to potlucks.
I currently have the manual crock pot shown on the right but if I ever need to replace it I will go with the programmable so that it will give me more options if I am not home, such as automatically switching to warm after so many hours.
The Crock-Pot brand says it will fit a six pound roast but mine was much bigger and fit just fine. although there was very little room on top.
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Crock-Pot Programmable Cook and Carry Oval Slow Cooker
Crock-Pot Cook’ N Carry 6-Quart Oval Manual Slow Cooker
Serving Tips:
We found the Sweet Baby Ray’s barbecue sauce to be a bit too sweet for our taste so next time I will experiment with another brand. We will also top the meat with the barbecue sauce instead of mixing it into the pork. Either way is great though, we just really enjoyed the taste of the meat as is so you could even skip the barbecue sauce altogether..
If serving at a large gathering then this will go much further if you use small slider rolls. With pot lucks there are usually so many different side dishes to try to fit on a plate that a little of this goes a long way.
Crock Pot Pulled Pork with Root Beer
Some recipes call for using root beer instead of beer. I haven’t tried this method and it sounds like it would be too sweet. However, many swear by it. If you have tried either the beer recipe or the root beer recipe I would love to hear your results.
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