The Guinness Storehouse Experience in Dublin

If you happen to make your way over to Ireland, and specifically to the capital city of Dublin, I have a highly recommended stop you should take. If you are over the age of 21, and can enjoy a great beer, then of course, I speak of the Guinness Store House. It is an eight-story complex that serves as the public access front to the Guinness factory. Inside is an interactive experience rich in beer-making history, specifically relating to the history of Guinness. It is a building originally constructed in the early 1900s as a fermentation plant, but was converted in the year 2000 to the Guinness Store House.

Dublin is a wet, gloomy town, so thankfully this was an experience we did not have to wait for a bright sunny day. We paid our entry fee, which I believe was around fourteen Euros for each of us, and we were handed a complementary paperweight containing a drop of Guinness within (more on that later). Navigating through the first few floors provided us with a thorough history on the beer making process; we passed a large vat of grains, hop plants, and a huge indoor waterfall. Many old machines that were actually used in the beer making process over the last few centuries lined the halls.

We received a brief intermission from our self-guided tour midway up the tower at the bistro. After a sandwich and some refreshments (and some cheesecake), we continued upwards on escalators. On the following floors there were various exhibits, which I will not spoil - except they do serve a small glass of Guinness along the way. However, all of this leads up to the single defining moment of your journey - the Gravity Bar.

Situated atop the entire complex, the Gravity Bar is the highest floor. It boasts a complete, 360-degree view of Dublin, far below. Since the Gravity Bar extends outward from the building to the point where you cannot see it, there is a sense of being on a spaceship with its saucer-like shape. Once you arrive you are instructed to take your paperweight, and pull off a small rubber ring from the bottom. You exchange the ring for a complementary pint of Guinness, which you are free to sip and enjoy as you marvel at the view. We went close to Christmas time, and the bar was very crowded. After a short wait however, we were able to secure two chairs next to the window and relax for a moment.

After we polished off our pints and it was time to go, we made out way to the elevator, which took us straight down to the ground floor. We left with our paperweights and our smiles as we took the taxi back to the hotel from one of Dublin's best attractions.