Guinness Storehouse draws throngs of tourists in Dublin

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Casks stacked in the Guiness Storehouse in Dublin, Ireland. (CPimages/AP-Ananda Shorey)

By NEIL DAVIDSON
 
DUBLIN (CP) - What could be better than a Guinness in Dublin?

How about a free pint of the black gold?

It's not really free - although it's included in the price of admission - but the pint that comes at the end of the Guinness Storehouse tour feels like a bit of a bonus. And after wending your way through five floors of exhibits on how the famed beer is brewed, it's certainly timely.

The Guinness tour is a magnet for visitors to the Irish capital. The sightseeing double-deckers that criss-cross Dublin deposit tourists there all day every day, and the giant retail store on the ground floor of the Storehouse at the St. James's Gate Brewery is a mini-United Nations.

Guinness and its history dominate the surrounding neighbourhood. Built in 1904, the Storehouse building used to house the fermentation process during which yeast was added to the beer. That ended at the site in 1988, but the building re-opened in 2000 as Guinness's museum, open house and retail store.

The airy glass core of the building is said to be modelled on a pint glass. Stretching seven floors high, it would hold some 14.3 million pints, according to Guinness.

Exhibits on the ground floor introduce the ingredients that go into Guinness - water, barley, hops and yeast - with a noisy waterfall helping to get the message across.

Hops are bought from Australia, Germany, New Zealand, the U.S. and United Kingdom. Guinness purchases some 100,000 tonnes of malting barley each year - some two-thirds of all that's grown in Ireland. And eight million litres of water flow into the Dublin Guinness brewery every day from the nearby Wicklow Mountains.

The ground floor also introduces you to Arthur Guinness, the man who started it all. Born in 1725, he decided to acquire a small, disused brewery at St. James's Gate, signing a 9,000-year lease in 1759 for 45 pounds a year. Guinness went on to build a successful business and father 21 children - 10 of whom made it to adulthood - before dying in 1803.

Today, 1.8 billion pints are consumed worldwide every year. Guinness is sold in more than 150 countries, from Anguilla to Zimbabwe, and Canada is one of those where it is also brewed.

The Storehouse tour is not too demanding or time-consuming. It is kept simple, although you can linger at some interactive displays.

Moving up to the first floor, exhibits explain the brewing process, how beer barrels were made - there used to be 250,000 casks in the Guinness cooperage yard - and how Guinness has been transported through the years.

A tasting lab offers visitors a gulp or two of Guinness to tide them over during the tour.

The second floor is devoted to Guinness advertising and memorabilia. The third offers an interactive exhibit on drinking habits while the fourth tells the story of the Storefront building.

The drinking begins on the fifth floor. With the token given to you upon admission, you can pull your own pint - with supervision - and get a certificate in the process. Doing it right takes time (two minutes) and patience (tilt glass to 45 degrees and fill three-quarters full. Then leave to settle and when the surge subsides, fill it up.)

The nearby Brewery Bar offers food.

Or you use your freebie on the seventh floor at the Gravity Bar, whose circular glass walls offer a spectacular panoramic look at Dublin, with signs pointing out the local sights.

Back on the ground floor, most visitors conclude their tour by dropping a few euros in the giant retail store. Guinness glasses, coasters, bottle-openers, cards, hats, chocolates, T-shirts, golf club covers - you name it, they sell it.

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If you go . . .

Hours: The Storehouse is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. (until 7 p.m. in July and August). It's closed Christmas Eve, Christmas, Boxing Day and Good Friday.

Admission: Individual tickets are 14 euros (about C$20), with a discount if you book online or arrive via one of the city's sightseeing buses. There are also discounts for families, children, students and seniors. The tour is wheelchair-accessible.

On the web: For more information, visit www.guinness-storehouse.com.
 
 
This story was posted on Mon, August 13, 2007