Guinness is Good for You

A couple weekends ago we went to the Guinness Storehouse, the brewery in Dublin at St. James Gate. It was a really interesting place, and because Erin and Erica work at a hostel they got in for free (and Sarah got a discount)! The building is modeled on a giant pint glass, stretching up from the ground floor to the Gravity Bar at the very top. They have the original lease displayed in the entrance, signed by Arthur Guinness in 1979 and good for 9,000 years at an annual rent of £100- not a bad deal huh? The first part of the brewery explains the brewing process and details about barley, hops, yeast and water, the 4 ingredients used to make the beer. Guinness gets its dark color from the roasted barley and this one brewery alone uses 100,000 tons of Irish grown barley per year in the process.

Next we got a small taste of the new brew they are experimenting with in the tasting lab, which wasn’t too tasty; it was like a watered down version of regular Guinness. We then made our way through the history of Guinness advertising filled with old memorabilia which was really cool to see. There were lots of old bottles, coasters, stickers, posters, glasses, and a huge variety of other Guinness paraphernalia. “Guinness is good for you” was an old slogan used after some serious scientific researchers in the 1920s asked Guinness drinkers why they drink the beer, and they continuously heard the same reason: “because it makes me feel good.” For a long time people thought there were medical benefits associated with the beverage, so doctors used to prescribe it, and people also thought that it made them stronger. Next we learned about the history of the Guinness Book of World Records. None of us had ever made the connection before that the book was associated with the beer, though now the link seems pretty obvious. The story goes that in 1951 the managing director of the brewery went on a hunting party and got into an argument about what game bird was the fastest in Europe. After realizing that it was impossible to confirm this fact in reference books, and supposing that every night in pubs across the world people must debate about various topics, he had the idea for the book. It was first published in 1954, and the rest is history- it now holds its own record as the best-selling copyrighted book of all time.

One room in the storehouse was quite unique, it had a circular wall of small, rectangular pieces of paper posted from top to bottom where anyone can write whatever they want. People from all over the world come to the storehouse as it is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Dublin, so it was cool to peruse the wall and see what the people before us had written. Erica and Erin both left a message (Sarah wasn’t feeling creative at the moment). Erin wrote, “American girls love Guinness, it’s good for us!” and drew an American flag outlined by the words “Go grab a pint of Guinness.” Erica wrote, “On a rainy day drink Guinness! (In Ireland, that’s everyday!)” accompanied by a picture of an umbrella safely covering a pint of Guinness from raindrops.

The last stop on the tour was the Gravity Bar, which is at the top of the storehouse. It’s the tallest building in the city with glass walls, allowing for a 360 degree view of the city. It was pretty cloudy and foggy, but still great views. You get a free pint of Guinness included with the ticket, so we hung out and drank the delicious “black gold.” It’s served at 6 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit), and the proper way to pour it is to fill the glass at an angle about 75% of the way, and then wait for it to settle for about 90 seconds. Then you top off the head of the beer, and you’ve got a delicious pint! Guinness is sold in 150 countries around the world, with 10 million glasses sold every day (3 million of which are sold within the Republic of Ireland, despite a population of just over 4 million!). We all 3 have learned to appreciate the beer so central to Irish culture.