THE GUINNESS EXPERIENCE

                        A Fascinating Museum and a Surprise at the top

       I am a wine drinker and not a beer drinker, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t visited a lot breweries and distilleries in my travels.

      The #1 attraction in Dublin, Ireland is the Guinness Brewery built on 60 acres in 1759. That year Guinness inherited $150 and decided to acquire what was then a small, unused and ill-equipped brewery at St James's Gate. The lease, signed on 31 December 1759, was for 9000 years at an annual rent of £45.

      Arthur Guinness was born in 1725 near Dublin in the town of Celbridge, County Kildare where his father, Richard Guinness, was a Land Steward. Part of Richard's duties included supervising the brewing of beer for the workers on the estate, and it is probable that young Arthur learned the art of brewing from his father. The brewing industry in Dublin at that time was suffering because English beer was taxed less severely than the home-produced product.

       At first Arthur brewed ale, but by the 1770s a new strong black beer called porter was being exported from London.  Arthur took a chance on brewing this new product and the rest as they say is history. Just FYI, Stout contains more hops than either lager or ale. It takes 119 seconds for Guinness to settle. A pint is shy of 200 calories and contains 4.3% alcohol.

       The Guinness Storehouse is a 1904 cast iron and brick warehouse that now serves as a museum. We were able to get in on the senior rate everywhere in Dublin that had an admission. At Guinness the senior rate was 9.50 Euro compared to 14 Euro.

      The museum’s six floors circle an atrium. There were a lot of people, but the museum in the Storehouse is well spread out and with everyone moving at their own pace it worked just fine. The displays included multi-media and lots of old equipment. It was most interesting as we moved slowly up four stories. At that point we could take an elevator up the next couple of floors to the Gravity Bar. But a crowd was waiting for the elevator so we opted to continue walking. The Gravity Bar at the top offers a spectacular view of the city.

       It was a beautiful clear sunny day and the 360 degree view of the city was awesome. After rotating around the room soaking in the scenery we found a couple of empty seats just as people were vacating them. I went to the bar to get my friend her pint and asked for a half pint for myself. I drank about half of it. It was not as strong as I anticipated. Eventually it got pretty warm sitting in front of the sunny window, so we took the elevator back to ground level to continue sightseeing.

      This exhibit is unique in its layout and is very well done. It’s certainly worth one’s time to visit when in Dublin, regardless of one’s preferred drink.