See It Or Skip It: The Guinness Storehouse in Dublin
What is the Guinness Storehouse?
The Guinness Storehouse is the centerpiece of St. James’s Gate Brewery, which has been churning out Ireland’s famous stout—one of the world’s top-selling beers—for more than 250 years. The Storehouse is seven stories tall; at the top is the Gravity Bar, where you can sip a pint of Guinness (included with admission) and take in a 360-degree view of Dublin.
Why am I here?
I’m in Dublin with my two brothers, and one thing we have in common is a love of beer. To avoid the crowds, we decide to go to the storehouse at 11 a.m. (Hey, we’re on vacation.) We get our tickets online the day before so we can skip the line.
What’s it like?
The walk to the Guinness Storehouse is lovely; we approach on cobblestone streets and turn down an alley, where we come across the brewery gate.
Tours of the Guinness Storehouse are self-guided. My brothers and I manage to see it in a little over an hour, but if you dwell on all of the exhibits you could easily spend much longer. Like any good Irish pub, the place is fairly dark, but you’ll see exhibits detailing how the brewery was founded, how the beer is made, and how its iconic ad campaigns made Guinness a household name.
The unspoken truth, however, is that we’re really here for the Gravity Bar. It doesn’t disappoint. The experience of stepping off the elevator and into the bar to see all of Dublin unfurling below is one I’ll remember for a long time. We hand our ticket stubs to the bartender and he pours three pints, topping them off with a shamrock flourish in the foam. After the beer settles, my brothers and I toast and confirm that the black stuff really does taste better in Dublin.
The Verdict
See it...if you like beer. The Guinness Storehouse can read as overly commercial if you aren’t legitimately interested in Guinness. But it’s possibly the most elaborate architectural homage to beer, and that view from the top is mighty good (as is the pint).
Photos: Guinness by Tiberiu Ana under CC BY 2.0 ; DSC_0457 by herooutoftime under CC BY 2.0
