Ingredients
5 tbsp oil  
750/800g beef shin 
250g frozen soffritto (or 1 onion, 2 carrots and 1 celery stick, cut into small pieces)
2 tbsp plain flour 
500ml dark ale 
10g porcini powder 
2 tsp caster sugar 
1 rich beef stock pot 
Freshly ground black pepper 
1 tsp salt 

Pastry Ingredients - alternative below 
650g plain flour, plus extra for dusting 
250g cold butter, diced, plus extra for greasing 
150-200ml cold water 
1 egg yolk, beaten, to glaze

Alternatively you can top with puff pastry.  To do this make the base pastry with these weights: 

Pastry Ingredients 
430g plain flour, plus extra for dusting 
165g cold butter, diced, plus extra for greasing 
100-140ml cold water 
1 egg yolk, beaten, to glaze 
1 sheet of ready rolled all butter puff pastry 

Make the base pastry and roll it all out instead of cutting any off.  Line the base of the pie tin, add the meat and after egg washing the rim, top with the puff pastry and cook as above. 

Method
Preheat the oven to 160c. 

Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in an ovenproof casserole dish over high heat and add ¼ of the beef, season with salt and lots of black pepper and cook until golden brown. Remove the cooked beef from the pot and put to one side.  Repeat by browning off the meat in batches, adding more if needed. If the bottom of your pot gets too dark then add a tbsp or so of the ale to deglaze the pam so scrape the bottom until it is clean and pour the beery juices in to the meat, add more oil to the pan and carry on searing the beef.

Add the remaining tbsp of oil if needed to the casserole dish and reduce the heat to medium-high. Add the soffritto and cook until soft and translucent - roughly 5-7 minutes.  Make sure you scrape the bottom as you want all of those meaty bits in to the sauce.

Add the flour and porcini powder and mix.  You want to just cook the flour for a minute or two.  Be careful here because the flour probably will stick to the bottom.  Slowly add your beer to the casserole pan, scraping the bottom to ensure you have all of the flour off of it. 

Add the beef and all the juices to the pan and give it a good stir.  Add the sugar and stockpot and give everything a good mix.  Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat for 5 minutes then stir well, cover and place in the oven for 2-3 hours.  

Once the meat is soft enough to cut with a spoon, leave everything to cool completely.  Even better would be to leave overnight to completely chill in the fridge. 

To make the pastry, put the flour, butter and ½ tsp of salt into a large bowl and rub together until completely combined.  Add 150ml of cold water and carefully knead together to incorporate.  You want a soft dough, as you do this you want the dough to pick up all of the flour, you might need to add more water but do this 1 tbsp at a time as you do not want to add too much. This can be done in a food processor if you want.  Wrap the pastry in cling film and rest for half an hour.  I like how after half an hour it is rested but still soft enough to roll. 

When you want to make the pie, heat oven to 200c and heavily grease and flour a large pie dish.  I like to use a deep oval one measuring but any dish oval or round 24-30cm will work.   

Unwrap the pastry and cut off ⅓ then rewrap and put back into the fridge.  With the pastry on your board, dust the board and pastry lightly with flour and roll out large enough to line your tin with some overhang.  Snuggly fit into your pie tin. Trim the edges, put a sheet of greaseproof paper over the pastry and put baking beans in.  Bake for 15 minutes then remove the greaseproof paper and baking beans and bake for a further 10 minutes. 

Take the pastry out, put the beef filling into the pastry, you want the filling to be to the top of the rim of the dish.  Roll out the remaining pastry to fit the top of the dish with a little hangover.  Brush the edges of the pastry that is in the pie dish with the beaten egg yolk.  Top with the pastry lid and gently push the lid on to the base.  Heavily brush the top of the pie with the egg. Make a little slits in the center of the pie and put into the oven. 

Bake for 40 minutes until golden.