Spent most of Wednesday at the Guinness Storehouse. Storehouse = fermentation house, which is exactly what that section of the brewery served as until 1987. It now serves as the brewery’s main tourist and information attraction. We bought our tickets online to get a discount and bypass the lines…more on the importance of that in a moment.
A bit of history, Arthur Guinness got started by renting a brewery and property at St. James’s Gate from a local Bishop in 1759, paying 100 pounds down and 45 pounds a month for 9000 years (there’s a copy of the contract in the main floor - yes, in the floor). Most importantly, this included rights to the fresh, pure water coming into Dublin from the Wicklow Mountains, which Arthur was willing to protect with his life, if necessary (it almost was). As part of the 250th Anniversary, there are special events held each day. We chose to go Wednesday for the Guinness varietal tasting. 25 lucky folk got to head up to a room to learn about and taste the various versions of Guinness. (Early birds got the Guinness!) After putting our names on the list, it was off to their café for breakfast; tasty coffee, odd muffin,
A bit of history, Arthur Guinness got started by renting a brewery and property at St. James’s Gate from a local Bishop in 1759, paying 100 pounds down and 45 pounds a month for 9000 years (there’s a copy of the contract in the main floor - yes, in the floor). Most importantly, this included rights to the fresh, pure water coming into Dublin from the Wicklow Mountains, which Arthur was willing to protect with his life, if necessary (it almost was). As part of the 250th Anniversary, there are special events held each day. We chose to go Wednesday for the Guinness varietal tasting. 25 lucky folk got to head up to a room to learn about and taste the various versions of Guinness. (Early birds got the Guinness!) After putting our names on the list, it was off to their café for breakfast; tasty coffee, odd muffin,
danish 1, bamboo fork 0…
but at least they’re trying to be green. Then, it was off to taste!
We sampled four in all; draught (the money maker), extra stout (closest to the original), foreign extra stout (huge in Africa), and the 250th Anniversary stout (only available in the US – and the tasting – tastes like Budweiser). Met some crazy Aussies, each got a free pint glass, and then headed back to the beginning to read all about everything Guinness.
but at least they’re trying to be green. Then, it was off to taste!We sampled four in all; draught (the money maker), extra stout (closest to the original), foreign extra stout (huge in Africa), and the 250th Anniversary stout (only available in the US – and the tasting – tastes like Budweiser). Met some crazy Aussies, each got a free pint glass, and then headed back to the beginning to read all about everything Guinness.
Guinness, as an employer, was ahead of the times providing employee housing, onsite health care and exercise, clothing, and of course 2 pints a day (or for those under 18, the pint allowance could be put in a savings account or used to buy extra stuff at the company store). The company also provided 6 paid holidays including day trips to the beach or your choice of other attraction (option to re-choose if it rained out your holiday). Later they also provided incentives for obtaining higher education (many employees started work at 14 because their families could not afford to send them to secondary school which was not government run).
After 6 hours at Guinness and drinking our cost in beer (well, technically I drank most of it), we headed back to the hotel with our sweet pint glasses and some other things from the gift shop. When the world stopped spinning so fast, we headed back down to the Temple Bar area for chow. This dinner was brought to you by the letter H, then number 5834739, and Oliver St. John Gogarty Pub. This fine establishment advertised fine Irish music and food….which, was on floor 2. We went to floor 3, which beheld the French style of Irish food. And, 3.50 8oz bottles of water (still), 4 euro for a basket of bread and butter (well, the bread was warm) and snooty waiters. Three groups bailed after looking at the menu. Perhaps we should have done the same, but we persevered. The food wasn’t that bad, but the bill was. And, the band we wished to hear was next door, but we were unable to get a seat at the window, because the head waiter was the devil…in all, DON’T EVER GO THERE!
After dinner we went on the mandatory pin run from the local Hard Rock, which was successful, and then went in search of comedy, Irish style. Here, we learned that all guide books cannot be trusted, as two of the three we had listed the wrong times. Damn them. We headed back to the hotel and got minorly lost, but we did see some apartments that had stone carvings from Gulliver’s Travels. Check one more thing off the “Random Things to Do” list.
Up next, gold, bronze, bogmen, and stuff.
END OF LINE
After dinner we went on the mandatory pin run from the local Hard Rock, which was successful, and then went in search of comedy, Irish style. Here, we learned that all guide books cannot be trusted, as two of the three we had listed the wrong times. Damn them. We headed back to the hotel and got minorly lost, but we did see some apartments that had stone carvings from Gulliver’s Travels. Check one more thing off the “Random Things to Do” list.
Up next, gold, bronze, bogmen, and stuff.
END OF LINE
No comments:
Post a Comment