Marinate Steak In These 8 Beers For A More Tender, Delicious Cut

We will happily sink our teeth into a juicy steak any day that has a "y" in it, and half of the enjoyment is packing as much flavor into that meat as possible. Whether your cooking focus is getting a delicious, seared crust or maximizing the nutritional value of your steak, achieving tender, tasty meat is the aim of everyone's game. To that end, there are lots of pantry staples for marinades that can help you do this, and one of the most overlooked is beer.

Yes, beer can be the foundation of a great marinade, as the acid helps to break down the meat proteins, making it mouthwateringly soft. Beer can also imbue a steak with flavors from the earthy to the sweet, depending on the can or bottle you reach for. But it can also be a bit of a minefield. As a general rule, very hoppy beers such as IPAs shouldn't be used to marinate steak, as the hops that make beer bitter don't play especially well with beef. Still, personal taste is everything, so one home cook's disaster can be another's delight.

Other experts warn that marinating steak in beer for too long can mess with the texture, though it won't marinate as fast as pineapple can. To save you time, trouble, and the terrifying prospect of a gummy steak, here are our recommendations for the best beers to use as a marinade for your meat. Cheers!

Named after the secondary fermenting process that produces a smoother beer, lagers come in a range of colors and flavors, from the sweet Vienna to the dark Dunkel. If you prefer to stay local, American lagers tend to be crisp and clean, with a range that takes in everything from big-name brands to artisanal craft products. It's a widely popular marinade for steak as it tenderizes meat beautifully without overpowering the flavor.

Amber and red ales both bring plenty of malt to proceedings, but if you want a marinade for steak, stick to the less hoppy, slightly fruity red kind, and so avoid any bitter disappointment. Aside from looking gorgeous in the glass, a good quality red ale will imbue your beef with hints of toasted, caramel flavor, with a sweetness that can be amplified further if you combine it with maple syrup or honey.

Part of the lager family, pilsners originated in Europe and are a popular beer worldwide. Many German, Belgian, and American pilsners are all downright delicious, with taste profiles varying from the bitter to the sweet, but generally with a crisp character and at least an edge of bitterness. Less-bitter varieties make a wonderful base for a steak marinade, especially when combined with aromatics and herbs. 

If IPAs are often discounted as a beer marinade because of their bitterness, the same doesn't necessarily go for pale ale. Hops are still present in this beer that's been around for centuries, but they are more balanced by the sweeter malt, so it's been successfully used to marinade steak. It teams well with punchy ingredients like chilis or soy sauce and will help give a tender, flavorsome bite.

There's a world of flavor behind this rather vaguely named class of beer, which has been around since the 1600s. Europe and the United States produce a range of brown ales, all with medium to dark bodies and a rich, malty taste. It's that characteristic in particular that makes them such a good partner for steak. The brew's hints of caramel and chocolate bring depth to the tenderized meat, while the hint of sweetness is delicious when paired with more marbled cuts.

These two beers might look very similar, but their flavor profiles set them quite far apart. Porters are made from malted barley, while stout (Guinness is arguably the most famous name of that bunch) uses barley that has been roasted rather than malted. Both are delicious, with strong characters that both will bring their singular attributes to a marinade for steak. If you want tender meat that carries hints of sweetness and chocolate, grab a porter. For a bite with more edge and the suggestion of coffee, a stout is what you need.

As so often happens in the wonderful world of beer, one umbrella term covers a multitude of flavors and tastes. So it goes with wheat beers, named because of the grain used to make them. While a witbier can be spicy and a German weiss beer somewhat fruity (commonly not recommended for a steak marinade), American wheat beers are crisp, though a little on the hoppy side. In a steak marinade, sweeter aromatics might be needed to temper that edge.

Not just a delightful drink, Belgian beers come in a riot of colors and flavors, presenting home cooks with almost unlimited choices for a steak marinade. You could start with a saison (also known as farmhouse beer, which present a quirky, unique tipple) for your next BBQ cookout, or give a dubbel, tripel, or quadrupel a whirl. Nobody really knows where those names come from, but they loosely apply to the beers' alcoholic strength. We recommend trying the spicy, caramel-forward, complex dubbel for your marinade, as it shouldn't overwhelm most cuts of steak.