Happy Belated St. Patty's Day from Guinness
As many of you know, Yankee Girl and I went to Dublin for the greatest of Irish holidays. Despite the wintry conditions, we had a good time. I'm not joking when I tell you that we had some sort of winter precipitation every day, including snow, freezing rain, and sleet. Luckily there was plenty of "The Black Stuff" to keep us warm. For you non-drinkers, that would be Guinness. I think I might have converted YG into a Guinness drinker. If not, she has at least learned to appreciate a good Black and Tan.
Once we got settled in to our hotel, our first order of business was to visit the Guinness Storehouse. You can actually smell the Guinness for several blocks as you approach the Brewery.
Pictured above is the famous Guinness Gate on St. James Street, otherwise known as the entrance to the St. James Gate Brewery. I never knew that was why the brewery was called the St. James Gate Brewery, possibly proving that drinking can make you smarter. Another thing that I didn't know was that good ole Arthur's house was attached to the brewery (hence the picture of the sign).
That ends the educational portion of the post. Next we enter into the actual Brewery Tour.
It is definitely one of the best brewery tours we have taken (and we have taken a few). Unfortunately for you, the brewery is pretty dark, so we didn't take many pictures. Therefore you will have to just visualize. Before you enter the tour, they have a display of every Guinness bottle ever used. As you enter the tour, there is a huge display of barley so that you can feel and smell it. Then there is a display of roasted barley, which you can taste. I now have souvenirs of Guinness dry barley and roasted barley. Something else I learned was that roasted barley actually tastes good (it's almost like a crunchy version of Guinness). As the tour progresses, it takes you in front of and behind a huge indoor waterfall. The rest of the tour is just your normal brewing stuff which I won't bore you with. 
The tour ends at the gravity bar, which is on top of the brewery and offers great views of the city. Here you can see me at the Gravity Bar , about to drink my first Guinness in Dublin. Apologies for the lack of scenery, but we weren't thinking about that (truthfully I was just focused on the beer).
To the right is a picture of the Gravity Bar from street level.
Stay tuned for more of Dublin in coming posts.
posted by Yankee @ 8:57 PM
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