Laravel 5.4 Auth::attempt works, Cannot pass auth middleware - php

Question

I'm having some trouble with laravel 5.4 authentication.
Out of the box the auth worked although I couldn't access Auth::user().
After some changes that had to be made for FrontEnd considerations, I added a new login function that uses Auth::attempt($credentials) like so:
namespace App\Http\Controllers\Auth;
use App\Http\Controllers\Controller;
use Illuminate\Foundation\Auth\AuthenticatesUsers;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Input;
use App\Models;
use Auth;
use Log;
class LoginController extends Controller
{
use AuthenticatesUsers;
/**
* Where to redirect users after login.
*
* #var string
*/
protected $redirectTo = '/home-page';
/**
* Create a new controller instance.
*
* #return void
*/
public function __construct()
{
$this->middleware('guest')->except('logout');
}
public function login(){
if(Auth::guest()){
if (Auth::attempt(['email' => Input::get('email'), 'password' => Input::get('password')])) {
Log::debug(Auth::user());
return redirect('/home-page');
}
}
return 'cannot log in';
}
}
The login passes, the redirect works, and Auth::user() is accessible.
The problem is that after the redirect ,all routes guarded by 'auth' middleware are not accessible.
Route::group(['middleware' => 'auth'], function(){
Route::get('some-route', function(){
return view('some-view');
}
});
Moreover, I tried to see if I can access the user there but Auth::user() returns null.
Notes:
1. User table is the one that was created by the Laravel user table migration.
2. Registering users via RegisterController (got from php artisan make:auth)
3. Only change in auth.php is this:
'providers' => [
'users' => [
'driver' => 'eloquent',
'model' => App\Models\User::class,
],
],
Would love to hear new suggestions, I can't figure what's wrong here.