Cowboy Beans - cooking recipe

Ingredients

1 lb pinto beans
1 (12 ounce) bottle beer
1/2 lb thick slab bacon, cut into 1 in. cubes or 1 lb ham hock
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 sweet bell pepper, seeded and diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (16 ounce) canned whole tomatoes, cut up, with juice
1 jalapeno, sliced
1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
salt, to taste, after beans are cooked

Preparation

Soak the beans overnight in lots of cold water. (Most recently, I have been using the Cook's Illustrated recommended method, soaking the beans in 4 qts water mixed with 3 tbl. table salt). Drain off the soaking water and rinse.
Put beans in a very large pot. Pour in the beer and enough fresh water to come up 2 inches over the beans. Add remaining ingredients except salt. Cover, heat to a boil, reduce heat to very low - just enough to bubble the liquid a little. Simmer until beans are tender, 2 to 3 hours.
If using ham hocks, remove, discard bones, chop and return to pot. Add salt to taste.
Note1: I've noted the comment regarding the time - I made this again, and it took me just under two hours to get to tender beans. It is important to soak the beans well, and older beans may take longer. The beans should be tender but whole - they should not start breaking down.