Good things come to those who wait? (Guiness Brewery)

Member Name: damessiahuk

Product:	Guiness Brewery
Date:	02/11/05 (406 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good, Clean, Family fun, educational and midly entertaining . . . FREE PINT TOO : D

Disadvantages: Dull in parts, not what I expected

When i embarked on my trip to Dublin, I think both myself, and my fellow male companions (no remarks there please) were in no doubt that a trip to the birth place of Guiness was on the cards.

Prior to Dublin, i had only ever had one pint of Guiness in my life. About a week before my trip, i had one simply to see if i could handle it, as I assumed i would be drinking alot. It turned out, i couldn't. Infact you might have said it was absolutely disgusting. We all agreed on this point.

Nevertheless, i still wanted to go to the brewery, just because...well you know..to say I'd been.

The price was around €14, but i remember i got in for about €8 because I had a student discount card. When you enter, you enter a huge 6 story building, made mostly out of glass. You can stand in the atrium and look all the way to the top, with various escalators and lifts on either side. The ticket you get, is not a piece of paper, but a plastic 'glob' in which there is a hollow compartment, in which floats a 'drop of the black stuff'. Yes. You get your own drop of guiness to take home with you.

As you go in, you are treated to various displays of all the ingredients, machinery, and demonstrations of the processes by which Guiness is brewed. The tour is self guided, you follow the arrows and work your way up the floors to the top of the building.

To be fair, most of this is pretty boring. Although i hear it has been recently refurbished, there are very funky lighting effects and a very old meets new feel to the deco' inside. I liked this, and it did compensate for the lack of content.

To explain, the tour is actually more of a museum than a tour of the brewery. So if you were expecting to see the stuff being brewed before your eyes, prepare to be dissapointed. I know I was.

However, all is not lost, as once you make it to the top of the building, you are in for a treat. Something which is worth the money alone. After going up the final glass elavator, you enter the top floor. Its not much of a floor, but a pod. A completely circular room, with floor to ceiling glass walls. From here you can see all of Dublin. With the sea to the East and the Mountains to the West, it really is an awesome spectacle. And to top it off, whilst up there you get your complementary free pint of Guiness to enjoy while you take in the view.

Now, as i noted, up until now, i didnt really rate Guiness. But like i say, this was up until now.

It is true, it really does taste better over there. This one pint blew my mind, and i realised, this was what the fuss was about. This was what Guiness was meant to taste like, and this was why over 120 million pints were sold a day (or something like that, obviously i didnt learn that much from the tour). I can quite believe that people say that it is the greatest pint they have ever had. Maybe its just because of the experience, maybe its because you are sitting right on top of where its all made, or maybe its because it really is one helluva drink, and the only reason it tasted so bad before is that we cant put that Irish charm into every drop of it. There definately is something in the water.

Overall, the museum bit was a drag, and the gift shop was slightly expensive, but for the view, the general experience of being there, and the nicest pint of Guiness you will ever have, is definately worth the wait. Good things definately did come on that day.

Summary: Must do trip in Dublin, but dont expect too much