Dublin – Guinness Storehouse
One of the attractions in Dublin that we had to pre-book as there were limited slots, and indeed none on the Saturday of our trip, was the Guinness Storehouse. I had visited before several years ago, but I’ve managed to forget nearly everything about the experience, which is really why I have a blog as a handy reminder of my travels. It was also an essential I thought for Liam, on his first trip to the city.
I look hassled and tired in the photo….. Masks were required throughout the Guinness Storehouse, part of the rules in Dublin when we visited. Our tickets were checked on entry and we also had to show our NHS Covid passes, which were all carefully checked. There was an odd arrangement where we got near to the till counter and everything stopped for ten minutes, which was likely just to prevent over-crowding, but they instead over-crowded the ticket area and could have perhaps explained the situation. But, everyone was friendly, so all was well.
Someone wanted me to take a photo of their group, but I nominated Liam as he’s a civil engineer. Apparently civil engineers don’t get trained in this specific project work, but Liam did a very good job anyway.
Above are a heap of photos, although that’s really quite self-evident, but I thought I’d mention it in case anyone thought I’d forgotten to caption them individually. The self-guided tour starts with an explanation of the brewing process, then there’s information about the history of Guinness and one of the most interesting areas to me was the collection of advertising items. I hadn’t realised that Guinness had its own transportation network including boats and trains, with a section devoted to those forms of getting their beer across the world. There was also a large room where previous Guinness television adverts were shown, some of which were really quite innovative.
Well, indeed…… It’s possible to have a beer included and sit in a bar elsewhere at the site, but one of the highlights is sitting in the Gravity Bar and so we paid a bit more for that. We were seated by the window which was really rather lovely, with excellent views over the city and the hills.
With every ticket to the Guinness Storehouse comes a free pint and although there are a few options such as Hop House 13, it felt appropriate to have Guinness. I think Liam is a convert to Guinness now, so that’s some form of result for them. I was already a convert, it was my gateway drug into a whole world of stouts and porters. Although Guinness probably don’t want their beer referred to as a “gateway drug”, but there we go.
Our seats gave us excellent views over the city and we were never rushed during the visit.
Views over the brewery complex from another part of the bar.
And some of the Guinness branded gates as we walked around the exterior. As an aside, I had been following the situation with David Amess as I received a BBC news alert when inside the Storehouse that he had been attacked. It was when walking past these gates that the news alert arrived saying that he had died, all very sad.
As an experience, the Guinness Storehouse is something of an essential for many visitors to Dublin, it’s part of the heritage of the city. I’m not sure that the self-guided tour would be worthwhile in its own right, but as part of the whole experience it worked well. It’s not the cheapest at £20 each, but at least there was a free pint as part of the arrangement. As for whether Guinness tastes better in Dublin, I think it does, it seems just that bit creamier. Guinness is made nearly entirely in Dublin (which wasn’t always the case) and so it’s the same stuff, but perhaps the minimal transportation and the knowledge of how to pour it and keep the lines clean is what makes the difference. Anyway, a very enjoyable visit.
