Located within the centre of the 22-hectare St James's Brewery, Guinness Storehouse is Ireland's most popular tourist attraction. Visitors to the seven-storey historic building can learn the history and secrets behind Ireland's national drink of Guinness stout– a world-famous dark porter brew with a tight, creamy head made with only four ingredients: water, barley, hops and yeast.
While you can't access the actual brewery, you can take a self-guided tour of the Market Street storehouse, which, built in 1904, was the first building in Britain to be constructed in the Chicago School style of architecture, and was used for fermenting beer until 1988. The Guinness story starts with Arthur Guinness who founded the brewery in 1759 and began brewing porter, a stronger type of stout, in the 1770s. The visitor experience begins in the central glass atrium shaped like a giant pint glass where you can also see the 9,000-year lease Arthur signed for the property.
The museum displays history on the Guinness family, info on the cooperage and transportation of Guinness barrels, the brewing process and the company's iconic labels, design and advertising. On the fourth floor you can learn how to pour the perfect pint of Guinness (served at six to seven degrees Celsius), complete with certificate; or try the stout-infused meals in the Brewers Dining Hall on the fifth floor; then enjoy a free pint of the brew in the top-floor Gravity Bar with panoramic views over the city (there's a complimentary soft drink for the kiddies). The Guinness store on the ground level allows you to personalise your own bottle of the dark stuff and create a genealogy certificate of your Irish forebears.
Adult admission to the Guinness Storehouse is €16.5 and €6.5 for kids aged six to 12 years. For an extra €25, over 18s can also experience the Guinness Connoisseur Bar with exclusive beer tastings through the four most popular variants: Draught, Original, Foreign Extra Stout and Black Lager. To visit from O'Connell Street in the city centre, take bus 123 to the Thomas Street stop. From here, it's a four-minute walk down Portland Street West.
