A Day At The Guinness Storehouse In Dublin

It’d been over 10 years since I last visited Dublin when we got an invite to head over to Ireland for a couple of days to celebrate the 15th birthday of the Guinness Storehouse.

Guinness itself is much older but the storehouse only started about 20-years ago as a chance to give visitors to the lush green Isle, the opportunity to indulge firsthand in arguably the nation’s favourite drink.

Last time I visited, it was with friends from Finland and one from Ireland (who I’d just seen a few days before in Barcelona) and seeing as we’d had a great time, I was looking forward to visiting Dublin.

After we chucked our things into the hotel room, we headed straight for the Guinness storehouse for what I feel is mandatory on any trip to Ireland (especially seeing as it ends with a pint of Guinness couple with an amazing view over all of Dublin.

The tour takes you through different rooms and vaults where you learn more about how Guinness is made and how it all began.

It was all very reminiscent of when I’d visited 10 years ago except this time was definitely going to be very different (though I didn’t know it at this point).

As we weaved our way through the storehouse, one thing I did notice was how different it all looked from when I last visited.

I mean fair enough, it was over 10 years ago so my memory of it might be slightly fuzzy but there were definitely a lot of new additions that I knew weren’t there last time I visited.

Turns out, I was correct!

I asked one of the fellas who works there who confirmed that they constantly look to change things and up the storehouse to keep it interesting not just for repeat visitors but also for people who’d never been before.

A prime example of a new addition since I’d last been here was The Tasting Rooms.

Walking into the tasting rooms kinda made me feel like I’d been let loose in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Also, the opportunity to taste something… anything had me excited as we’d skipped breakfast at this point and I didn’t realise how hungry I was till I saw that sign.

Alas, the tasting rooms did not have any food but it more than made up for that with all the intriguing and exciting smells emanating from these futuristic-looking steam pods.

We piled around each one playing a guessing game of trying to figure out which smell was which. (The answer was there but we did our best not to cheat…)

I may have stuck around my favourite one far too long… (by this point, I was ravenous)

Luckily, the tasting room did have Guinness for us to taste. Let the liquid lunches begin!

By the time we left The Tasting Rooms, I was somewhat sated, albeit only for a few minutes but enough to carry one without thinking about rumbling sounds in my tummy.

We headed straight away for what is my favourite part of the storehouse – the advertising floor! Seeing these adverts always invokes feelings of nostalgia in me and it was nice to see that it still held the same appeal.

Even the scary guy trying to make me have a ridiculously huge pint!

Even Lloyd was left entranced by the bright lights.

We walked into what looked like a mini-pub within the storehouse and finally, our surprise was revealed.

We would be having lunch here (YAAAASSSSSS!!!) paired with Guinness and boy was I game.

We hurriedly took our seats in The Connoisseur Bar…

…surrounded with pictures of Arthur Guinness; along with some other prominent figures in the history of the storehouse.

I have no shame in admitting that I didn’t take the time to find out who the other people on the walls were, there was lunch to be had, people.

I scanned the menu quickly, pleased with what I saw, I hunkered down in preparation of course after course of deliciousness…

…served with different types of Guinness that I didn’t even know existed until that point.

The pints of Guinness went down all too easily.

The thing is, I’ve always been known to have a cheeky Guinness or two, even on a night out so I was very much in my element.

Finally, the first of the food started to arrive…

Crispy Irish baby gem leaf, shredded mangetout, cucumber, radish and orange with seared duck breast – paired with the Dublin Porter.

At this point, I realise that I still have far too many photos to fit into one posts and so I thought it best to carry it on to a second post available below.