Jeffrey Lewis performing with The Bundles in Machester, U.K. on May 17. (Media credit/Man Alive! via Flickr)

NEW YORK — Jeffrey Lewis is sitting in a double-parked 1991 Nissan Pathfinder on South Eighth Street in Williamsburg on a Tuesday afternoon. It’s in low 80s as he’s flipping through pencil marked 11×17 pages.

In the car’s dusty interior, a black sketchbook and a small pouch of pens and pencils are on the back seat. A used scratch ticket is on the passenger side floor and coins and old receipts are scatted around the dashboard. The air conditioner is off but Lewis looks comfortable in his black Brooklyn Anti-Folk Festival t-shirt and blue Levis with worn out knees. A red number four pencil rests on his right ear, the tip poking out of his thinning shaggy brown hair.

The Pathfinder has been Lewis’ office recently, at least for a few hours on Tuesdays and Fridays when New Yorkers play a giant game of musical cars as the city’s streets are cleaned. The pages may be part of the eighth and latest issue of Fuff, Lewis’ self-published comic book series, but the 34-year-old artist and musician isn’t happy with them yet. Lewis has been working on the issue since last June and hopes to finish this summer.

"It could be done this week if I just hunkered down," he says.

Lewis has more pressing responsibilities: Working out transportation and housing issues before going on tour with his new group, The Bundles, on May 15 throughout the U.K., and with his brother Jack in Israel beginning May 22. By the end of the month, Lewis will be at the Primavera Festival in Barcelona, Spain.

The last nine years have been busy as Lewis transitioned from playing coffee houses and small venues to touring around the U.S. as an opener for acts like Dr. Dog, and as a headliner in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Music became a source of income for Lewis around 2001 when his first album came out on Rough Trade Records, and more gigs were booked.

In 2009, Lewis released his fourth album, "‘Em Are I," and he was asked to write a series of articles and a comic strip on songwriting for The New York Times. This year, he recorded a series of "illustrated songs" – tunes that Lewis sings while holding posters of related drawings — for the History Channel on topics like the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Peloponnesian War.

Living on money saved from touring over the past four years, Lewis spent this spring in Williamsburg resting drawing before touring this summer.

"I’ve been doing more artwork and a bit less music," Lewis says, "and also I sort of feel like I’m in between albums in a weird way. I don’t really know what the next album is going to be."

Dates are scheduled. He just wants to get it done. And for that, he probably needs to go to Maine.

–

Lewis grew up in a Manhattan tenement apartment on East Ninth Street between First and Second avenues. His mother, Wendy, is an English teacher. Joe, his father, was a New York City firefighter until an injury in the early sixties. Lewis’ father receives a small pension check every month, Lewis says, and lives "a very hippy lifestyle." His father "always sort of had one little hustle or another," Lewis says, "anything to avoiding working full time."

Before Jeffrey and his brother Jack were born, the Lewis’ bought land about thirty miles north of Augusta, Maine where the family later spent a few months every summer sleeping in a trailer.

Jeffrey didn’t play sports. He sketched on the floor of his room and included drawings in school projects. Horror novels by John Bellairs were Lewis’ favorite books and he bought comics at magazine stands in Saint Mark’s Square. Marvel’s Rom issue seven was the first comic he really liked.

He played piano as a teenager, learning chords and basic theory, but was always more interested in drawing and comics. At the State University of New York at Purchase, Lewis’ thesis for his Literature major was a critical analysis of the comic, The Watchmen. For two years after graduating in 1997, Lewis traveled, began writing punk and garage-tinged folk songs, and finished his first professional comics.

–

(Media credit/Dale Harvey via Flickr)

Sitting in the driver’s seat, Lewis flips though a sketchbook. This is his 24th. The others sit on a shelf in his third floor Williamsburg apartment, where Lou Reed album covers and a poster of Rom are d©cor.

"I finally put them all in order and I realized how much I slowed down. In the past few years I’ve been filling up about one sketchbook a year, whereas before I started touring I was filling up about three sketchbooks a year," Lewis says.

Drawing does not get done on tour.

He can’t work in a car and needs to be alone to concentrate. Still, Lewis brings his current sketchbook every time he goes on the road. Each book begins with a drawing of Lewis and his favorite comic book character Rom, has a list of songs and a page marking when the book was started. The first page of the book he is holding now has Lewis and Rom surrounded by overwhelmingly cute dogs under a title drawn in the style of a 1950′s horror comic.

His work isn’t exactly mainstream fare. One comic is based on his father’s exaggerated story about a cross-country trip in a 1959 Plymouth Fury that was ripped apart by bears. Another was named, “Reflections on Tomorrow Thus a Yesterday Flower Shall Doom." Now he’s working on a coming-of-age story with adolescent superheroes experiencing the growing pains of everyday middle-schoolers. On one half-sketched page, Lewis shows a shy superhero boy that feels ostracized by his schoolmates, goes home and masturbates in the bathroom.

His comics are sold in a handful of stores around the U.S. Lewis says he rarely sees any money from retail sales. and the comics are sold at every show he plays. But the they not only take up more physical space in cars than CDs, comics make much less profit.

After looking over the 24 sketchbooks this spring, Lewis says he realized his drawing skills hit a peak in the late 1990s as his music career was beginning. To get over it, Lewis says, he will have to spend more time drawing.

He flips to pages where he recently copied panels from some of his favorite comics, like Eight Ball and The Watchmen.

"William Faulkner apparently would retype and retype the entire novel of The Great Gatsby just to know what it felt like to write a great novel. I thought that was a funny idea and, just for kind of a joke, I thought I would see what that would be like with comic book pages," he says.

–

At about 1:15 p.m., Lewis puts his key into the ignition.

"It’s about that time," he says. The engine whines. It won’t start. He glances at the dashboard and tries again. The ignition clicks and the Pathfinder is alive. After the car is parked in its usual place across the street, Lewis decides to walk down Broadway for pizza.

The used Pathfinder was purchased two years ago for touring the U.S. When home from tour, Lewis moves the car back and forth across the street twice a week and drives to Maine during the summer to concentrate on drawing. He’s put about 70,000 miles on the odometer.

He first went to Maine to work on his comics in 1997, just after college. After a few months, he finished the 40-page "Tao Jones," his first comic. He hated going there as a teenager. "I always just wanted to come back to New York immediately, but then once I realized that it was a really good spot for working on my comic books I started spending a lot more time up there," he says. Lewis built a small one-room cabin with no electricity and plumbing where he sleeps and works.

Before the Pathfinder, he would take a bus from Manhattan to Boston’s South Station, and hop another bus to Augusta. Then Lewis hitchhiked the thirty-mile stretch to his family’s property.

"I’m probably going to go when I get back from this next tour, but I haven’t gone for a whole summer for a long time, cause its just harder now that, you know, with tour stuff, if I have a girlfriend, or, you know, anything that just makes it impossible to disappear for three months or four months at a time," he says.

Each every trip is more or less the same. He packs a few shirts, pairs of socks and underwear, an acoustic guitar and his art supplies. Arriving at the cabin, Lewis cleans up, throws a few dead mice away, and gets to work.

He writes a script and outlines basic page layouts and then draws characters and scenes in his sketchbook. Once he knows the basic plot and panel flow, Lewis begins to sketch lightly on 11” x 17” card stock. Figures and backgrounds emerge in 3h and 4b pencil marks. He doesn’t know where it’s going yet.

As graphite is layered on, Lewis makes choices. Words and the page borders are the first elements to get painted with a size six watercolor brush. Each panel is finished with strokes of black Windsor & Newton ink and details in Micron pen. The finished page is scanned, converted into a .tiff file and sent electronically to a printer in Texas. Soon boxes arrive at his Williamsburg apartment with 3,000 copies.

–

Lewis is sitting in Sabrina’s Pizza Restaurant on Broadway. He’s serious about pizza. In a Times article, Lewis said the best "political" song he ever wrote was about price increases in New York pizza joints ("Sal’s Pizza Has Sold Out to the Yuppie Scum").

Customers sit at some of the tables, only casually glancing at Lewis at most. He is not Jeffrey Lewis the musician or comic book artist here. He’s just eating a regular slice of cheese.

"I always just wanted to do comics. That’s, like, what I feel I’ve wanted to do my whole life," Lewis says after he finished the slice, "Its just that very, very few people make any money at that, it’s a very esoteric form of entertainment to make a living at."

He never planned on making a living as a musician. Despite the pressures and dual roles he’s playing, Lewis says there is improvement in each comic he produces.

"I would like to think I’m not too old to actually to end up as a comic artist after all but you know at a certain point anybody who’s playing baseball sort of realizes, like, oh I’ll never make it to the major leagues, you know, I’m at such and such an age," Lewis says, pausing. "I don’t know if art is like that ‘cause you really can get better and better at it the more you do it."

OXFORD, Maine — Adam Browning celebrated his birthday and a homecoming of sorts at the Nateva Music and Camping Festival on Saturday.

Browning, of Muncie, N.Y., turned 22 down the street from where he was born.

As the Grateful Dead were about to end their last set at the Oxford Plains Speedway in 1988, Diane Shatz gave birth to Adam at 11:59 p.m.

"It must’ve been ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘Dear Mr. Fantasy’ that did it," his father Phil Browning told the Advertiser Democrat of Norway, Maine, referring to the last two songs of the night that were playing as Adam was born.

"He decided he wanted to hear the music," Shatz said in the 1988 article.

On Friday near the entrance to the festival on the Oxford County Fairgrounds, Browning, wearing jeans and a white t-shirt, was carrying two 20 pound bags of ice from a nearby supermarket.

"Its almost a religious experience, it’s the first time I’ve been here since 1988 and I definitely don’t remember that," Browning said.

His father bought him the ticket and he is attending the festival with his girlfriend and several friends.

Phil Lesh and Bob Weir, former members of the Grateful Dead, are scheduled to headline the festival’s line up on Sunday with their band Further. The Grateful Dead, and its various post-Jerry Garcia incarnations, have not played in Oxford since 1988.

"I’ve seen Further a couple times and they’ve been amazing so I hope they put on as good of a show if not better," Browning said.

Adam said he is still in contact with Edna Olmstead, an Oxford woman that delivered him. On Saturday the two reunited around noon.

"I haven’t seen him since that day 22 years ago," Olmstead said in a telephone interview as she was about to leave to pick up Browning and his girlfriend.

"They want to get away from that scene and refresh themselves for a bit," she said

While 22 years have passed since Browning was born at the concert and any members of the Grateful Dead have performed here, Browning said that he doesn’t think the scene is all that much different from what his parents experienced.

"Everybody’s peaceful here, everybody gets along. I don’t think its changed nearly as much as anyone thinks it has," he said.

Beer has long been a part of American politics, and today is no different, from “who would you rather have a beer with”, to brewers crafting recipes named after candidates.

From the early days of George Washington’s home-brewed ales and James Madison’s attempts at creating a national brewery, patriots and early American leaders relied on beer for nutrition and inspiration.

In more recent history, Jimmy Carter’s brother, Billy, promoted his own brand of brew, Billy Beer, shortly after the Georgian peanut farmer was elected. During the last presidential election in 2004, polls found that Americans would rather have had a beer with George W. Bush than John Kerry.

Throughout the country’s existence, the humble hopped beverage has lubricated the wheels of democracy by sparking debate or resolving conflicts. And the beverage has come up in some pretty interesting ways this year on the campaign trail.

Senator John McCain faced criticism after the Associated Press highlighted the candidate’s extensive fundraising connections to Anheuser-Busch through his wife’s fortune and high-powered position in Hensley and Co., the nation’s third-largest A-B distributor. Although McCain’s financial connections to the brewing giant may be close, don’t expect the White House to replace the stemware with Pilsner glasses. McCain’s campaign manager Jill Hazelbaker told the Associated Press that he “very rarely, if ever, drinks alcohol.”

But who could forget Governor Sarah Palin’s now infamous appeals to “Joe Six-Pack”?

In August, Democratic candidate Barack Obama’s taste for beer was challenged during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes. During a discussion of his campaign’s attempts to court blue-collar voters, Steve Kroft, the interviewer, remarked to Obama, “You tried really hard to reach these people. You went and sipped beer, which I know you don’t particularly like.” Obama promptly told the reporter that he had a beer the previous night and then said, “Where does the story come from that…I don’t like beer? …C’mon, man.”

Though politicians may use beer as an image to appeal to the common person, some breweries and drinking establishments have long abided by the folk ethos of not combining politics and alcohol, while others embrace the mix. With the heightened energy of the upcoming election, many brewers and barkeeps around the country are getting into the spirit of the election season.

“What better way is there to celebrate the diversity of ideas and thoughts that come out every four years during our election process with something that goes way back to our founding fathers, that’s beer and ale,” said Wayne Mayer, director of marketing for the Half Moon Bay Brewing Company.

The northern California based brewery’s ALECTION lets customers “vote” for a candidate by buying either the “Obama Ale,” or the “McCain 2008,” re-labeled versions of their English-style light ale. Each week the results are tallied on the brewery’s website.

While encouraging their drinkers to show their preference for the candidates, the style of the beers themselves is the same.

“We did that for political reasons so no one could say that we were trying to favor one over the other,” explained Mayer.

Currently the Democratic candidate is in the lead “by quite a bit,” according to the brewery. When Blast contacted Half Moon Bay in mid-October, Obama had 4,991 bottles over McCain’s 1,274.

“We’ve seen a huge jump in our incremental beer sales” said Meyer.

Unlike the real upcoming vote this November, Mayer jested, “This is the only election where you can vote early, often, and legally.”

Magic Hat Brewing Company, based in South Burlington, Vt., released a politically themed Participation variety 12 pack, containing a few of their normal offerings and a special pre-prohibition style “Participation Lager.”

“Beyond the political packaging and beyond the beer itself, which is also politically themed, we actually as a sales team go into our bar promotions and register voters,” said Krissy Leonard, spokeswoman for Magic Hat.

Magic Hat partnered with HeadCount, a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization to register people to vote. On the night before the election, the brewery is sponsoring a concert at the Highline Ballroom in New York City to benefit HeadCount featuring Robert Randolph, Joss Stone, and other artists.

Winter variety packs are now being shipped but there should be more of the politically-themed 12-packs in stores until Election Day, Leonard said.

Below the Mason Dixon line, the Flying Saucer Draught Emporium, a chain of beer bars, is conducting another presidential poll. Patrons at the bars can buy a pint glass for $5 bearing either Obama or McCain’s face drawn as a cartoon, which is counted as one vote.

With 13 locations in Texas, Arkansas, North Carolina, and other traditionally red states, some might find the current standings a bit surprising. Obama’s 11,420 bottles leads McCain’s 9,220 as of Oct. 28, according to the company’s website.

Fort Worth, Texas and Cordova, Tenn. are the Flying Saucer’s only locations where McCain is holding a lead.

In New York, one of the strongest Democratic support bases, Sixpoint Craft Ales located in Brooklyn created the “Hop Obama” in honor of the democratic candidate’s grassroots campaigning style.

“We were tossing it around as far back as late September last fall,” said Jeff Gorlechen, one of founding members of Sixpoint. “Then his campaign started steam rolling. At the time it was all word of mouth, and we identified with that.”

After Obama won the first few primaries, Gorlechen and the other four workers at the brewery decided to brew the ale.

While the brewers may admire the candidate, Sixpoint stopped short of fully endorsing him, as their label points out: “Although we do not intend this beer to be a direct Sixpoint endorsement of Obama, we do believe the delicious and refreshing quality it represents reminds us of the Senator’s successful grassroots campaign.”

There are “many parallels” between the rise of craft and micro brews and Obama’s style of campaigning, he said.

“There was no marketing, no advertising dollars behind it. It’s hard not to admire him,” explained Gorlechen. “In the last five years the craft market segments exploded. It kind of caught the major breweries off guard. I think [Obama] did the same thing when he won Iowa.”

Available on draft in N.Y. and Mass., Gorlechen described the Hop Obama as a hybrid ale “sort of like a British session ale, sort of like an amber, sort of an ESB [Extra Special Bitter]” that uses Scottish, English, and German malts and three different hops from the Pacific Northwest. Also, a part of the profits go to Get Out The Vote, an organization that registers voters.

Of the seven ales produced by Sixpoint, it is currently their second best seller and the brewery sold its stock of the beer faster than any other single batch released for the first time.

Although one of Sixpoint’s best selling products, some bar managers have refused to serve their beer because it is mixing beer and politics, he said.

The “Ale to the Chief” by Colorado’s Avery Brewing Co. has hit shelves in the 32 states. “Instead of an Imperial Pale Ale we’re calling it a “ËœPresidential Pale Ale’ because it’s a democracy here, it’s not an imperialistic nation,” mused Matt Throll, beer manager for Avery.

This past spring, Adam Avery, the owner of the brewery, returned from a road trip with the idea of creating a politically themed beer.

Overall, the reaction to the “Ale to the Chief” has been positive, the Brewery said.

“We’ve only had one person call up and complain to say “Ëœleave politics out of beer,’” Throll said. “We had to tell them that beer has been a part of politics a long time, that’s just the way it is. We weren’t setting out to offend anybody, but of course that’s going to happen.”

“It was not necessarily pro any of the candidates but pro change,” said Throll

Avery’s brewmasters have another batch of “Ale to the Chief” underway for Inauguration Day.

In the Midwest, the St. Louis Brewery Inc., producer of the microbrew Schlafly, is selling posters and T-shirts with altered versions of their labels featuring the candidate’s images.

“I changed our Hefeweisen to‚  “ËœHefe-Biden,’ our Oktoberfest became “ËœBaracktoberfest,’ and our actual flagship pale ale became “ËœPalin Ale,’” explained Troika Brodsky. graphic designer for Schlafly Beer.

Two days before the Vice Presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis, Brodsky learned that a church group would be screening the debate at Schlafly’s downtown brewery and restaurant.‚  To celebrate the debate, Brodsky made four custom tap handles and posters featuring altered “Ëœpolitical versions’ of the brewery’s labels.

Although the other candidates’ names were easy to juxtapose with the labels, Brodsky said creating one for McCain was difficult. He settled on “ËœMcCain’s Maverick’ American Pale Ale.

“Its basically just parody,” he said. “They were a big hit, actually.”

Even though the church group holding the screening was “more conservative-leaning,” Brodsky said, “Still, the Baracktoberfest and the Hefe-Biden taps sold far more.”

Schlafly is now selling a limited number of Baracktoberfest and Palin Ale T-shirts on its website.

Beyond the tension and mudslinging of the election, it’s all in good fun, he said.

“The point of this is that everyone’s really exited about the election around here. We want to encourage that energy, encourage people to vote,” said Brodsky.

Browsing the isles of local liquor stores, it’s clear that there are not a lot of Irish imports available in the states. Guinness, Harp, Smithwick’s and Murphy’s can be found everywhere, for the most part. Feeling limited in your choices? Thankfully, the 1,414 breweries in the United States offer numerous alternatives to help celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Here’s a sampling of what is available around the country:

East:

Wachusett Brewing Company
Westminster , MA
"Quinn’s Amber Ale"
Named after one of Wachusett’s founders, Peter Quinn, this is the brewery’s spring release in honor of his Irish roots.

Paper City Brewery
Holyoke, MA
"Ireland Parish Golden Ale"
A blond ale with hops added at the end of fermentation for an extra bite. Central Massachusetts-based Paper City also produces "Riley’s Stout," a traditional Irish Dry Stout.

Victory Brewing Company
Downingtown, PA
“Donnybrook Stout"
Taking its namesake from an annual horse fair in Dublin, this seasonal draft-only release uses British and Slovenian hops to give this take on Ireland’s traditional brew an earthy character.

Harpoon Brewery
Boston, MA
"Hibernian Irish Style Red"
Beantown-based Harpoon has offered this Irish red since 2001. The seasonal release takes its name from the Ancient Roman nickname for Ireland, "Hibernia”-or winter-as they were slow to adapt to the country’s climate.

Midwest:

Schlafly Brewing Company
Saint Louis, MO
"Irish Style Extra Stout"
A hoppy, though balanced, Extra Stout from a relatively unknown St. Louis-based craft brewery released in early February.

Boulevard Brewing Company

Kansas City, MO

"Irish Ale"

Available January through April, this red ale is made from six unique pale and roasted malts with a solid dose of Magnum and Saaz hops.

Goose Island Brewing Company
Chicago, IL

"Kilgubbin Red Ale"

A seasonal release brewed in honor of the Irish immigrants that settled on Kilgubbin Island, near Chicago, with malted rye added at the end of fermentation for a spicy finish.

Summit Brewing Company
Saint Paul, MN
"Great Northern Porter"
Carmel and black malts merge with Cascade and Fuggle hops to form a solid British-style porter, released year-round from Minnesota-based Summit.

South:

Abita Brewing Company
Abita Springs, LA
"Abita Red Ale"
Seasonal release by Louisiana-based Abita, producers of Purple Haze and Turbodog.

Blackstone Restaurant and Brewery

Nashville, TN

"St. Charles Porter"

Though taking after the British Porter style, this Nashville-produced beer was the bronze medalist in 2006 Great American Beer Festival’s Brown Porter category.

The Duck-Rabbit Craft Brewery

Farmville, NC

"The Duck-Rabbit Milk Stout"

Self-proclaimed "Dark Beer Specialists," the 3-year-old brewery was the Bronze medalist in 2006 Great American Beer Festival’s Sweet Stout category.

Four Peaks Brewing Company

Tempe, AZ

"McCarthy’s Red"

8-time winner of the Phoenix New Times’ Best Brew Pub award, Four Peak’s releases this Red Ale throughout the spring. Be careful drinking this one; you may get blacklisted!

West:

AleSmith Brewing Company

San Diego, CA

"Speedway Stout"

One of the highest rated brews on Beeradvocate.com; this is an intense Stout with coffee and chocolate notes rounded off with a smooth, but powerful finish.

Walnut Brewery

Boulder, CO

"St. James Irish Red Ale"

Irish ale with a citrusy Cascade hop bite, this beer won the bronze medal in 2006 Great American Beer Festival in the Irish-style Red Ale category.

Moylan’s Brewery & Restaurant

Novato, CA

"Paddy’s Irish Style Red Ale"

Low hop content, massive barley notes, and caramel undertones are the hallmarks of this World Beer Championship silver medal winning beer.

Throngs of green-clad people. Pints of black or green-dyed brew. Plates of steaming corned beef and cabbage. These images have become synonymous with St. Patrick’s Day around the world. It started as an annual feast in honor of Ireland’s patron saint, St. Patrick. Legend has it that the Christian missionary drove all of the snakes from Ireland, and taught the native Irish about the Holy Trinity. While not an official holiday in the United States, almost every major city has events. Chicago, for example, dyes the Chicago River green each year, and New York City has a large annual parade.

In downtown Boston, where the city has celebrated St. Patrick’s Day since the mid-1700′s, Blast’s John Forrester gathered together a small group for an evening of Irish cuisine and beer. Beginning with pints of Guinness as Shepherd’s Pie was being prepared, the five guests sampled various Stout-based concoctions.

Guinness, by far Ireland’s most commercially successful beer, is often mixed with other types of beer and liqueurs. Both in the U.S. and in Ireland, the most common example is the “black and tan,” or “half and half — one part stout and one part lager or ale, such as Harp and Bass. Another popular mix was the “black fog” — a few splashes of Chambord, a Black Current flavored liqueur, and Guinness.

Overall, the crowd-pleaser seemed to be the Black and Gold half Stout and half alcoholic cider, such as Magner’s or Strongbow. There are, of course, countless other concoctions that will allow you to go beyond the standard pint of green-dyed Budweiser or traditional Guinness this holiday, so strap on that shamrock, throw on a green t-shirt, and start your own St. Patrick’s Day tradition this year.

“Craic” is an Irish term for a light-hearted evening filled with good food, drinks, music and laughter. While there are many ways to celebrate the holiday breweries, bars and restaurants are all known to have events–try inviting some friends over for an intimate night of Irish food and drinks this St. Patrick’s day. Instead of the stereotypical corned beef, hash and green beer, here’s a unique dish from the land of Erin that is sure to help bring a bit of craic to your St. Patrick’s Day party.

The Blast Shepherd’s Pie

Serves 5-6

2 to 2 1/2 pounds potatoes, such as russet, peeled and cubed
3 tablespoons sour cream
1 cup milk
Salt and black pepper
extra-virgin olive oil

1 11.5 fl. Oz. bottle of Guinness Draught Stout
2 pounds ground beef

1 clove garlic
2 medium-sized carrots
1 large onion
2 1/2 tablespoons salted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chicken broth
2 heavy dashes of Worcestershire sauce
1 cup frozen peas
1 teaspoon paprika or cayenne pepper

Hot sauce (optional)

Prep Work: Chop carrots, onions and garlic. Peel potatoes and cut into 1 to ¾ inch cubes.

Begin by boiling the potatoes with generous dashes of salt while you warm a skillet on another burner to cook the beef. While the potatoes cook, add a small amount of olive oil to the pan and the chopped garlic. When the garlic begins to smell fragrant, add the ground beef and cook for a few minutes. As the meat begins to turn brown, add salt, pepper and a third of the Guinness bottle. If so desired, add a dash or two of hot sauce as well. Once the beef is browned throughout, add carrots and onions, and stir often.

Keep an eye on the potatoes; when they’re tender, drain the water. Add milk and sour cream, and mash until mostly smooth. Once they’re at the desired consistency, cover and set aside.

To make the gravy, use another burner on medium heat and melt butter in a small skillet. Once the butter is liquefied, add flour, chicken broth, salt and pepper, and the remaining 2/3 of the Guinness. As you’re making the gravy, preheat the broiler on a high setting. Stir constantly so that the gravy does not melt, and no lumps of flour remain. Let it thicken as it cooks for a minute or two, and then add to the meat and vegetables. Lastly, add peas to the meat.

Take out a rectangular baking pan with 3 to 4 inch sides, and fill with meat and vegetables. Cover bottom of pan evenly and then spread potatoes over the meat, forming a top layer. Sprinkle fine layer of paprika or cayenne over the top.

Place the pan away from the heat source in the broiler and cook until top layer of potatoes are browned.