Liffey Water...? (Guinness-Hopstore)

Member Name: helencb

Product:	Guinness-Hopstore
Date:	21/02/06 (828 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting Attraction, Complimentary Pint, Indoor Attraction

Disadvantages: none

I first read about the Guinness Storehouse on a consumer website about two years ago, and decided it would have to be on my list of attractions to visit on my next visit to Dublin; the thought of a complimentary pint of Guinness after browsing through seven floors of attractions of liquid black gold artefacts, being just to tempting to refuse.

The museum is open seven days a week, with the exception of Xmas Eve – Boxing Day and Good Friday. During the summer the Storehouse is open until 9pm at night, although for the rest of the year, the Storehouse closes at 5pm. Opening time is from 930am each day.

The Storehouse itself is based at the Guinness Factory on the banks of the Liffey. You can reach it by strolling up the banks of the Liffey, which will likely take about 30-45 minutes depending on the length of your stride. Alternatively the Storehouse is on the Dublin Tour Bus route. The Dublin Tour Bus normally costs 12 Euros, however the very nice driver did take us back into town afterwards for 2.50 Euro per head each.

Entry to the Storehouse costs 13 Euros per person for full entry tickets, with discounts for children (5 Euros) and for older students (9 Euros). You can also buy a family ticket for 30 Euros. You can book on line at www.guinnessstorehouse.com. We just showed up and were able to gain entry without any difficulty, although a January visit is not the height of the tourist season and it may be advisable to book ahead in the summer months.

Guinness has been brewed at this site for nearly 250 years, and the current Storehouse building was completed exactly 100 years ago in the style of the Chicago School of Architecture. This building used to house the fermentation process in making Guinness, and evidence of the old pipes, and original factory walls are still in abundance as you walk around the exhibition. However the exhibition has been modernised and the core of the building is a giant Glass Pint which stretches from the ground floor, right up through the building and out into the skyline, which is the seventh floor of the exhibition and houses the 360 degree panoramic Gravity Bar.

The displays are delightfully simple to browse around and great effects are created with one line quotes and key words which are transmitted onto various walls all over the Storehouse. The tour begins on the Ground floor behind reception, and here you will learn all about the four main ingredients which make up a pint of Guinness, namely Water, Barley, Hops and Yeast. Contrary to popular opinion, the water used in the process is not water from the Liffey! In the factory it is known as liquor, emphasising the emphasis that Guinness places on this key ingredient. It is noisy at this level, and you can sense the Craic of the workers and it feels like you might have stepped back in time somewhat.

The tour leads you up a spiral staircase to the next main exhibitions on the first floor. There is also lift access, although I did feel that using the lift would slightly disrupt the natural flow of viewing the various exhibitions. The next stage is to understand the brewing process, although like all fine food and drinks, there is that little bit of know how, of tacit knowledge in the process that we will never understand. Also on this floor you will see an exhibition of the transport that was used to ship Guinness across Ireland and eventually around the world. Guinness had their own boats for this purpose. They also had a narrow gauge railway around the factory, which was able to guide trains around extremely tight corners in the factory grounds. We also gain insight into the trade of a Cooperage, and there is an exhibit of old casks stacked up, which can only make you reflect of the scenes at the turn of the last century when 250000 old wooden casks were stacked up and were a wonder of Dublin. Nowadays these have been replaced by Stainless Steel.

We also learn about the sales and the growth in sales of Guinness abroad and a clock counts up each day from 0 to 10,000,000 representing the number of pints of Guinness that are produced every day, and consumed around the world.

The second floor was fascinating for me as it takes you through a tour of the advertising activity through the years. This display is a mixture of interactive video screens taking you through all the TV adverts from the 50’s to the present day, and interspersed with this we see displays of all the different types of bottles and cans and other promotional items that Guinness has produced over the years. It also solved the mystery for me of how the Guinness Book of Records came about in the 1950’s – I was never 100% sure if it had anything to do with Guinness or not!

The third floor houses a learning centre which is used by Guinness employees and also the business community at large, and the fourth is also an extension of the Learning Centre with the addition of how Guinness has impacted on Ireland life. From here it is advisable to make your way to the seventh floor and to the Gravity bar to sample the finest pint of Guinness you will probably taste. Guinness was generally regarded as a good employer, and the talk among women was to try and find a Guinness Man, as the pension scheme was very attractive compared with other employers at the time.

The Gravity Bar is purely a complimentary Bar, and you are provided with a ticket at the ticket desk, which you present in exchange for a Pint of Guinness, Extra Cold Guinness or a soft drink. Well “The Sun was over the Yard Arm” you know (if only just….) The setting is fantastic as you have a 360 degree view of Dublin. My only criticism is that there was very few chairs, and so people tended to sit on the floor beside the window to admire the view and drink a toast to Arthur Guinness. The bar is a very modern setting and is extremely friendly, with staff engaging the whole crowd in singing Happy Birthday for a staff member at the time we arrived.

Going back to the 5th floor you will arrive at a bar where you can buy more Guinness if you so choose, and there is also a restaurant which had attractive menu options, although we elected not to eat here as it was quite empty at the time and we decided to head back into Dublin for lunch.

There are adequate toilet facilities throughout the storehouse, and are well signposted from the appropriate floors. The final attractions you might want to consider are the Guinness Archives, which are situated on a Mezzanine Floor and the Shop, which is a good size and sells an excellent range of branded sportswear, and other articles.

I was impressed with the Storehouse, and definitely recommend you visit if you get the opportunity and if this kind of self guide tour is something you like doing. We felt the entry price represented good value for money, when you see the overall quality of the attractions, the length and the interest of the tour, and the free pint considering the price of a pint of Guinness in Dublin’s city centre these days!!!!!

Cheers Arthur!

Summary: Reasonable value for money, especially if you enjoy a decent guinness!