Guzzle guzzle (Guinness Brewery)

Member Name: Shellywelly

Product:	Guinness Brewery
Date:	12/11/08 (85 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fre pint if you like Guinness

Disadvantages: Not the most well thought out museum

I have now visited the Guinness store house on two separate occasions, the first time I was with someone who knew the manager therefore I had a personalised tour and I did not see it the way the usual tourists see it! The second time I was a tourist and went with my partner, we purchased a Dublin pass so we had quick entry and admission was free, however I believe the usual cost to enter is around 15Euro each and there are sometimes some queues.

When you reach the floor where the tour starts you can either wait until a tour is starting or go round yourself, we were on a day trip and did not want to kill time waiting therefore we went round by our selves.

There are 7 floors in the Guinness store house and if you are scared of heights I would avoid this museum at all costs as on the escalators you can see direct to the bottom floor and it is a very long way down!! There is a lift available for pushchairs and people with disabilities but you still can see the drop from the lifts.

The ground floor is where the shop is found and the tour starts its journey. This is the part of the storehouse where you learn about the ingredients that are used in a pint of Guinness. Barley, hops, yeast and water - there are some impressive displays and photo opportunities, i.e. there is a large fountain you can walk next to that represents water.

You then go up a flight of stairs that take you to the Arthur Guinness room which has a short film and explains how the original pint was created. You then follow up another flight of stairs to the tasting lab - I didn't see this the first time I went but was pleased it had been included this time as you got a small amount of Guinness to taste, which is ideal if you are unsure if you want to order the free pint when you get to the gravity bar. I was surprised how smooth it tasted as I am not a ale drinker and having had a sip of Guinness in England and hated it I found this taster direct from the brewery very tasty!

Then on to cooperage and transport, I found the cooperage part really interesting as it was fascinating to see how they managed to make the casks without using any adhesive and the skill involved was amazing, it's a shame trades like this had to come to a end. The transport section was as you would expect, a model train, boat etc - not very interesting.

Upwards and onwards and you find a small area showing some advertising pieces, it was nice seeing adverts you had long forgotten, but I feel this area was lacking something and could be expanded upon. On this floor you also find a coffee bar, however I can't rate this as I did not stop for this.

The museum then becomes very boring on floor 3, 4 and 5, and it feels that they have stuck things on the floor just to fill up the space. To be honest I would skip these areas! They do have a area to write messages...however they have no pens so unless you have one this is pointless.

The final floor is the gravity bar. This is a bar that gives you a 360 degree view of the city of Dublin, be warned it gets very hot up there, we went there on a freezing day in Dublin and it was a scorcher in the bar! The bar also gets very crowded with people enjoying their complementary pint of Guinness, soft drinks of Fanta, coke or lemonade are also available. This is also a pay bar so you can stay in the bar and enjoy additional pints if you wanted to.

All in all the museum was ok, but I strongly feel its needs some improvements, especially on floors 2,3,4,5. Also for some reason it doesn't have a floor 6 which is confusing and makes you thing you have missed something. Its well worth a visit but personally if you only have time to visit a few places it may be worth giving this one a miss, unless you are a big fan of Guinness!

Summary: worth a visit if you have nothing lelse to do