Ok, my delinquency? Noted. Got a new template, too. Let’s move on.

Tonight was cookin’ with beer night chez Image-de-bière. We had a nice pork tenderloin in want of a good marinade before hitting the convection oven for to reach 160f. One of my favorite “in-a-pinch” cookbooks (Brilliant Food Tips And Cooking Tricks, by David Joachim) suggested a beer-and-sage marinade, mentioning only ‘dark beer,’ so it was an interesting exercise to pick one–from the available selection at Holly–and see how it fared. My choice? Samuel Adams‘ Honey Porter.

First, the recipe: marinate in 1c beer with: 1.5tsp dried rubbed sage; a small onion, chopped; a garlic clove, chopped & .5tsp black pepper. I chose to throw the loin, covered in tinfoil, on a wire rack (itself on a sheet, to catch drips) in the oven at 350 until hitting the desired temperature. Dead simple, really. Served with mashed red potatoes, steamed broccoli, and of course, accompanied by the beer.

I’ll be honest, the food could have come out a little better. I think I added a bit much pepper (more than the called-for amount, certainly) to the marinade, and on top of that, one hour in the fridge with this marinade wasn’t enough for really thorough penetration, though it wasn’t lifeless. Because of the pepper issue, I didn’t detect much contribution of the beer to the loin, though it was moist and pretty near perfectly cooked for medium-rare. In the future, I might go with a longer marinade. The technique of searing it on the stovetop before sending it to the oven, though, was a winner. And I have to think there ought to be some good way to take the marinade afterwards and whip it into a sauce, right?

The beer, though, was fantastic. Actually, this is probably my favorite beer from the folks down at Boston Beer Co. I lived in Boston for a while, and I remember this one debuting and being a regular for a long time, then disappearing. Now it is reborn as one of their seasonal Brewmaster’s Collection beers, and so, like their Winter Lager, I tend to grab it while it’s available.

It pours out a deep, deep amber, only visible in strong light, with a healthy, two-finger slightly-off-white head, which will proceed to lace the glass nicely all the way down. It gives off an enticing aroma filled with rich malt and an overtone of honey but no hop bitterness is detectable. Upon warming to a healthy porter temperature (ideally 46 to as high as 55), the sip reveals itself in increments: an initial light bodied, floral honey flavor yields to robust malt dextrins, providing nice body, mingles with sharp roasted malt bitterness and an iota of raisin, then dries and resolves to a just noticable hop bitterness and a re-accentuated astringency from highly-kilned malt. The real beauty of this beer is in not sacrificing complexity for drinkability—despite the whirl of flavors zipping across your tongue, this beer does not fatigue it—and at an a.b.v. of only %5.4, it’s utility as a holiday season session beer is certainly clear. Good stuff.

I’m going to have to try to pork again, and in the meanwhile, I got plenty other posts to get out here, so: More soon…