I scaled this recipe for 12 and put it into a roaster in the oven at 325 for 2 hours and warmed it up the following day for another hour. It did not need cornstarch for thickening as it thickened on its own. I reduced the carrots to 4C, reduced the tomato paste to 1 1/2 cans, and increased the beef by a pound. I added a few more potatoes and a small spoonful of brown sugar. My family raved about it. It was a very pretty dish and exceptional in flavor. The beef was extremely tender. I am sharing it with friends!

DO NOT USE GUINESS EXTRA STOUT. I made the mistake of allowing my husband to pick up the beer and the Extra Stout makes the sauce way too bitter. I really want to try this with the regular Guinness next time. However, to fix this I increased the amount of broth and sprinkled in about a tablespoon of sugar and in order to counteract the bitterness. It's a very thick, hearty stew and reall pretty simple!

I made this but used a crock pot - cooked it most of the day. Served it to a table of hungry poker players and there was barely enough left to soak a piece of bread. good stuff.

I really like the taste of this stew. It has a different flavor than the stews most of us are used to so this may not taste good to everyone. For me it was nice to taste something different, especially when it tastes good. I did take heed to other reviewers comments and added and subtracted some things to make the taste more "palatable", but nothing that would turn it into a different recipe. It still has that "special" taste which comes from the beer. NOTE: I doubled the recipe. I used 9 cloves of garlic 3 large potatoes, almost 4 lbs of stew meat, 3/4 of a 2lb bag of baby carrots (cause I didn't want to cut carrots), 2 small onions, 2 12oz bottles of Guinness, as much oil and flour as needed to brown the meat, 2 6oz cans of tomato paste, 3 cups of Mushrooms and 4 cups of beef broth. ADDED: My additions were a result of reading the reviews. I added twice the meat and more potatoes than carrots. I added sea salt and pepper to the flour that I used to brown the meat. I have found in my limited cooking experience that seasoning meat before it is cooked is never a bad idea. I also added a little sea salt to the stew. To bring in a familiar taste, a little thyme, a little basil and a couple of bay leaves. To curb the bitterness of the Guinness, two teaspoons of brown sugar. SUBTRACTED: Corn starch and water as I had planned to cook it all day and others mentioned that the sauce would reduce/thicken over time.

My family and I loved this stew!! It's thick and very filling I didn't have a stout beer on hand- so I used a lager.It was good, but I think I'd like stout a bit more so, next time I will definitely use a Guinness and a bit of sugar. I also added rosemary, thyme, basil, sea salt and pepper. I think that the spices added just a little kick.

very good. my only complaint is I followed the recipe but it never said when to add the garlic? I ended up adding it at the end when I found it was the only ingredient left. It probably needed to be added with the onions to bring out the full flavor. I used Killians beer and did add some salt.

This was a hit in my house. I did add a spoon of sugar to take away some bitterness. Good!

This was a great beef stew, I love the deep flavor the beer gives to it (I used Guinness). I'm not a big fan of tomato flavor in my stew so I left out the tomato paste. Also left out the mushrooms since I don't like them, and didn't use nearly as many carrots. Overall, this is probably my favorite beef stew recipe.

I thought this stew was way too tomato-ey. It just tasted like bitter tomatoes. It would've been better with just beef broth and the beer. We threw the leftovers away

The recipe was very easy to make, but not salty enough and a little too bitter from the beer (my kids who will eat almost anything didn't like it). I'll probably try the recipe again, but add some salt and reduce the beer a little.