Savory Sauerkraut and Sausage (Crock Pot)

We had a freezer full of sausage that I needed to use, so for Fathers' Day I cobbled this together with what I had. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly how much of each sausage I had, so this is estimated. It did, however, fill the crock pot to the inner brim.

Prep time ~half hour
Cook time 3-6 hours

7-quart crock pot

1-3 pounds of Kielbasa (1 and a half loops, cut into palm width pieces)
1-3 pounds of Original/unflavored Bratwursts (5-6 pieces)
1-3 pounds of Sweet Italian Sausage (pork preferred) (10-12 pieces)
*No more than 4-6 pounds total*
2x 2 lb bags Sauerkraut (I used Kissling brand)
1/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 to 1 full cup of beer (I used Guinness Extra Stout, amount approximate)
6-10 cloves of garlic, gently smashed
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
White pepper
Coarse ground Black pepper
Awesome rolls

Into a pan, put one bag of sauerkraut (as will fit), and heat til bubbling. Add brown sugar and half of the beer, and mix thoroughly while heating another 2-3 minutes.
Place in crock pot on low. The intention is to have a small layer of sauerkraut. Sprinkle a little bit of white pepper on top of the layer.

Brown all of the sausage on as many sides as possible.
Place in a single-piece layer on top of sauerkraut in crock pot. Set aside remainder. Add some smashed garlic in the holes between pieces.

Heat remaining sauerkraut with remaining beer, adding Worcestershire sauce after heated. Mix and continue to heat another 2-3 minutes.

Layer on top of sausage in crock pot, alternating with remaining sausage and garlic, and if possible have sauerkraut be the top layer.
Grind a generous amount of black pepper on top.

Heat in the crock pot on high 3-3.5 hours, or on low 5-6 hours. Serve on awesome rolls.

[spoiler]
I imagine one could heat all of the ingredients together in the crock pot, after the sausage is browned, but I think the separate heating of sauerkraut with brown sugar/etc gave it a wonderful extra kick.
I also probably could have done it all in a big pot, but I was going for expediency.

I screwed up by heating on high for 3.5 hours at home, driving to Mom's, then heating another hour on low. Unfortunately, this made the kielbasa disintegrate, leaving little bits of it all throughout the dish. While it made for a tasty surprise, I really wanted a piece of kielbasa [/spoiler]

This could probably be baked for an hour, hour and a half at 400, covered in the oven, if you don't want to use the crock pot.

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