Have to say, making beer beef stew is a very old Scottish tradition, and Guinness is definitely one of the worst beers you could use. It's a stout and too heavy with the beef. An IPA works perfectly though!
Edit - also, modern Scottish trick - add a splash of dry red wine too!
This recipe not only calls for Guinness, but also chocolate and espresso! I almost want to make it, but I'm scared it's gonna cost like $50 and not taste good.
Speaking of, has anyone here tried Hamburger soup? It's like beef stew except with ground beef, red wine, tomatoes and potatoes and it's very rich and hearty also.
It makes me think of that too. But, it's actually more like a rich hearty kind of stew, and it's very tasty (doesn't have cheese in it though). My mom makes it frequently in the winter and I prefer it to traditional beef stew.
Mmmm mmmm that does look good. I've tried to make beef stew but it always comes out like beef soup with too much sweetness (probably the wine). But you can't beat a bowl of good stew with bread on a cold day.
Serious Eats has a phenomenal (albeit labor intensive) recipe for beef stew. I've made it three times and all three times have been the best stew I've ever eaten. And that's certainly not to toot my own horn, I've made mediocre beef soup as you call it, and every other iteration of mediocre stew.
It sounds like there might not be much in your stew to thicken it. The beef fat helps a bit, but you can toss the beef chunks in flour to give the stew a bit more body. This recipe I used just straight up has you add some unflavored powdered gelatin to it to give you that coating-the-back-of-a-spoon texture.
I’ve used red wine and beef in dishes together in the past. Usually you just need something a little salty to balance the sweetness out. The UK condiment marmite usually does the trick for me, although soy sauce can work in a pinch.