The Guinness Experience
When you think about Ireland, when you think about Dublin, your first thought might be green; it might be about luck or leprechauns. Or, it might be Guinness. The ubiquity and reach of the Guinness advertising machine is unrivaled in its success and longevity. Every person in the world who frequents a bar or a pub knows the name, and most of those know the taste.
The popular stout is so intertwined with its heritage that even its logo is quintessentially Irish. The harp adorning every can and glass of Guinness has changed design several times over the years, but has always been similar to the national logo. For this reason the Guinness harp always faces right, and the national symbol faces left, to avoid undue confusion.
On our recent trip to Ireland we stopped at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin and took a tour through the seven stories of the storied building, learning all about how Guinness is made, stored, and consumed around the world.
Starting with how to get in, tickets vary in price depending on the time of day and other factors, but prices start at 20 euro You can purchase them online or at the door, and if you book in advance you must select a time to enter. It can get busy, as the Guinness Experience is billed as the most visited attraction in Dublin, with well over a million attendees per year. The tour is self guided and can take as little as an hour, but we took four. We are not pub goers nor are we regular drinkers, so know this is a decent tour and will take a while.
The tour is offered in English, and you must be 18 or older. You can change your appointed time up to 24 hours beforehand, but we changed ours on less time than that due to some flight issues, and only paid the difference between the original time slot and the new, busier one.
There are several types of tour to take, so read the descriptions on their website and make sure you choose the right one for you.
The Guinness Experience is just the self guided tour, plus a Guinness at the end at the gravity bar at the top of the building.
GE+Stoutie is the same thing, but with an additional pint on which you can have yourself printed! This is what we went with, and it was pretty neat.
GE+Guinness Academy is the tour plus a quick class on how to pour the perfect pint, as well as a certificate.
The Connoisseur Experience is the tour but also a more intimate look at Guinness history and how to pour it, in a small scale setting with a proper barman. This takes a few hours, especially if you do the tour after, so don’t make any big plans if you choose this option. You get to sample four different beers, you get a certificate here as well, and you even get to take some bottles home with you.
GE+Roe & Co Distillery is an option to do the tour at Guinness and then head over to the aforementioned distillery for a cocktail workshop and tasting.
Guinness Brewery Experience. This is not the Guinness Experience, but the actual brewery tour. It will also take hours to complete, and this one is guided. It is also the most expensive, so not for the casual drinker. This may be perfect for someone who loves Guinness or beer in general, but if you are looking to spend less, there are much cheaper brewery or distillery tours in Ireland. They’re just not the gold standard that Guinness is.
The Guinness Storehouse, where the Guinness Experience happens, is only one of the many Guinness locations in the world, or even in Dublin. It is located in St. James’ Gate. In medieval times this was an actual gate and the western entrance to Dublin, but there is neither gate nor walls here any longer, but a neighborhood bearing the gate’s name. If you’re a fan of the 2010 movie “The Way” with Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez, then you may be interested to know that the beginning of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela from Dublin traditionally began from St. James’ Gate.
The St. James’ Gate area and the St. James’ Gate Brewery, now the Guinness Brewery, were originally leased to Arthur Guinness in 1759 for an astounding 9,000 years. The lease, or more probably a copy of it, are on display in the Guinness Experience.
As you enter the actual tour you see the gift shop which, of course, sells Guinness branded merchandise as well as articles that can be personalized on site or shipped around the world.
The first part of the tour has to do with the only four ingredients in Guinness: water, yeast, barley, and hops. Some of the barley is roasted, much like coffee beans, and some is malted. The water is sourced from the Wicklow Mountains to the south of Dublin.
Participants learn about sourcing the materials and the processing of the ingredients through interactive visuals and creative displays. As you work your way up through the building, you learn more and more about where the drink comes from, the history of the brand, and how it has changed and grown over the years. All of this information is conveyed in a convenient and diverting manner, so it really is quite enjoyable.
Further on and up there are many replicas and posters and videos about the juggernaut that is the Guinness advertising efforts over the years. There is a theater with seating where you can watch some of the iconic film advertisements and a documentary style explanation of how they came to be. There are photo ops available with some of the Guinness zoo animals.
At the end of the tour it is optional, for an additional cost, to have your face printed on a pint! They can fit two or three people in the same glass if you want to save a bit of money, but whoever is in your picture, it is pretty neat. They take your picture with a tablet and then send it over to the printing machine at the bar. The barkeep will pour you a pint and then print your picture on it while you watch. There are a few tables and window seats where you can enjoy yourself and your face after.
Partway up the building you reach the café, which serves a Guinness mocha, which we have yet to replicate with success, and sausage rolls that are simply the best we have ever had. They have plenty of other options if those don’t satisfy, and you may want something here or at the restaurant because even just the basic tour takes a while.
The top of the building houses the gravity bar, which is the highest bar in Dublin and offers a great view of the city and the Wicklow Mountains, where the water in Guinness is sourced.
After getting your fill at the bar and experiencing Guinness, all that’s left is to make your way down 7 flights of stairs, past the gift shop, and out the door! If you are interested in other tours focused on alcohol and its consumption, we can highly suggest Old Bushmills, Tullamore Dew, and Jameson, all of which are on the island and within a few hours drive. Jameson is actually in Dublin, and you could even walk, so maybe start there. You’ve been drinking after all.
