Welcome back to #FailteFridays! While this is sadly my last blog to help guide you in Dublin, I saved the best for last. One of the most welcoming and incredible places in all of Ireland is the Guinness Storehouse. Imagine Disneyland but for adults, with beer!! This is easily my #1 place for anyone to visit if they’re traveling to Dublin. You can buy tickets online or just walk in whenever you’d like because Guinness is welcoming to all AND it’s good for you.
When you first walk in for your self-guided tour, you have to resist the temptation to immediately go into the store. I suggest saving that for last. The Storehouse has 7 floors in which each floor will teach you about all things Guinness and help you formulate an appreciation for every pint. The first floor shows you the process of selecting the barley and water that go into each batch of Guinness. The Guinness Brewery uses over 110,231 tons of Irish grown barley every year. This amount of barley could fill the entire storehouse two times over. Once you visit the Storehouse, you’ll be able to appreciate that amount.
As you continue along upstairs, you’ll learn about the history of the Guinness family and the impact their business had on Dublin. You’ll learn about Arthur Guinness, the man responsible for adding the “5th ingredient” that created the Guinness we know and love today. After you pass through that room and make your way up, you’ll get to the process on how the ingredients are put together and brewed. While the process of creating a stout is not far off for most companies, what differentiates Guinness is their brewing ingredients. Their most important being nitrogen, which has around 3,000,000 bubbles in every pint. It’s the nitrogen that creates the creamy head which is so notorious for Guinness stouts. So, the batch is ready, what now? For the beer to be shipped out, kegs used to be hand-built with the sole purpose of holding Guinness.
After you’ve learned about the history of Guinness, you can do a small Guinness tasting. In this, you’ll learn how to properly drink and taste the caramel/chocolate flavors from every pint. Once you’ve enjoyed your adorable little pint of Guinness you can take a walkthrough of the famous mascots which have been used over the years of marketing. The most famous mascots have been the sea lion, the bear, the ostrich, the tortoise and, the most famous of them all, the toucan with the slogan of “Lovely Day for a Guinness.”
Now, after all that walking and looking at the ‘Goodness of Guinness,’ you must be thirsty! With every ticket to the Guinness Storehouse, you get the opportunity to pour your very own pint of Guinness. A representative will guide you through the process to creating the perfect pint and after you’re done, you’ll get a certificate to take home and show everyone. Now take your pint of Guinness up to the Gravity Bar on the top floor and enjoy the taste of Ireland with the beautiful scenery of Dublin. As the people of Ireland say for cheers/health, Sláinte!
Thank you for reading my blogs on #FailteFridays. I hope they are able to guide you when it’s your turn to come to Dublin. – Mason Lipford
