I can't seem to get manual authentication to work, or the session to keep.

I'm trying to manually log in a user using Auth::login($user, true)

Here is the code in the controller:

$user = User::where('email', $request->email)->first();
Auth::login($user, true);
return redirect()->to('/dashboard');

When I redirect, i get bounced back to the login screen.

Here is my routes file:

Route::group(['middleware' => ['web']], function() {
    Auth::routes();
    Route::get('/', function () {
        return view('welcome');
    });
    Route::get('/dashboard', 'admin\adminRootController@dashboard')->middleware('auth');
});

I have tried every other solution I have found, and i still can't get it to work. someone please humor me and help me work this out. Please don't ignore it because "its been asked." I've already looked at 20 different posts related to this, and none of the solutions worked.