Guinness Storehouse Visit

The main reason for me coming to Dublin was of course to visit the brewery. They don't really have brewery tours but they do have a sort of museum called the Storehouse.

The museum was a bit weird in that it was set like a post-modern-Yaletown dream house with dark lighting, steel, projection displays, glass, exposed infrastructure and waterfalls.

Here are some interesting facts:
* Guiness uses 90K tonnes of Irish Barley a year.

* 18th century beer drinkers used to order beer mixed to their taste. This was called 'three-threads'. Presumably you would go and ask for three different beers mixed together!

* The word beer comes from the Anglo-Saxon word 'baere'

* The tour had a big kettle and vat you could walk into

* Fermentation generates alot of heat. I have made alot of beer. I knew this, but forgot. I wonder if you could use it to heat your house.

* They had a display about Cooperage - making the barrels. At first I thought it was a bit much - I just wanted my beer at this point. Who care about the barrels!!!
But the Cooperage film was pretty interesting and something I had not seen on other brewery tours. It showed how the master coopers carved the wooden barrels mostly by sight and very quickly.
* Coopers used a steam bell and wire rope to shape the barrels
* The wood use to make the barrels was much thicker than I expected - looked like 2x4s
* Barrels lasted a long time - some over 10 years.#
* Coopers would smell the barrels to see if they needed repair

* Irish pubs need to get a license from Guinness. I don't know the details - but I suppose it makes sense. You cannot open an 'Irish bar' and not serve Guinness can you? (Actually the Irish Bar in Luxor does not serve anything but the state beers!)

* Guinness does brew different beers for different countries. Called FES - Foreign Extra Stout they are brewed at higher percentages (7.5%) and are brewed in 40 different countries and available in 85.

* One of the last sections before getting to the free beer was a video display called it is your choice. It was a series of films talking about the pros and cons of drinking. I saw two. In the first film the guy was talking about how it reduced his inhibitions and how it really let him connect with this girl he met. In the second film it was about a drinking driving accident involving a motorcycle.

* Finally I got my free beer. It was very fresh, cold and very good. I was surprised how cold the beer was - but now I think that maybe they are serving their new 'Extra Cold' product they are marketing.

* I also had lunch in their restaurant and had a very nice seafood chowder. The people next to me had a nice looking salmon salad.

So in summary... I have seen better brewery tours. But I enjoyed the cooperage film, the Guinness at the top and their restaurant.