More is Less at the
Home of Guinness
COLIN SIMPSON
Brewery Visitor Attraction a Bitter Disappointment
Guinness Storehouse, Dublin
ON A TRIP to Dublin 20-something years ago I went along to the visitor centre at the St James’s Gate Brewery, the home of Guinness, and spent an enjoyable hour or two learning about the famous stout.
I remember finding the displays of Guinness adverts particularly interesting – the brand has a long-standing reputation for memorable, often quirky, commercials. Overall, it was a modest yet worthwhile tourist attraction. This summer I went back to St James’s Gate to find the visitor experience transformed. The centre has been relocated to the enormous former storehouse, where yeast was added to the brew, and the displays have been greatly expanded to fill seven floors.
It’s Ireland’s most popular tourist site, attracting 1.7 million visitors a year before Covid struck, and more than 20 million since it opened in 2000. High-tech displays bombard the visitor with information about yeast, malted barley and the like. But for me it was a case of more is less – or, referencing one of those famous ad campaigns, should that be Guinless? At the end of the day, how fascinating is a process that involves just four ingredients (barley, hops, yeast and water)?
Sure, the history of the business is moderately interesting, dating back as it does to 1759 when Arthur Guinness, the founder, signed a 9,000-year lease on the St James’s Gate site at £45 a year. But I can’t help thinking the detail would be of more interest to historians, business studies undergrads or branding geeks than your average tourist. The displays, and indeed the whole affair, is wildly overblown and too-clever-by-half. A copy of that historic lease, for example, is displayed under a sheet of glass set into the floor, making it difficult to read.
Pint-Shaped Atrium
Given that the Storehouse is described as offering an immersive experience, I found it curiously unengaging. Reading about it later, I learned that the seven stories are set around an atrium shaped like a giant pint of Guinness, something I didn’t notice when I was there.
Even the advertising displays seemed shrunken and diminished in such a vast setting. There are some interesting items on display, though, including, from 1929, the first-ever UK national newspaper Guinness ad. Given the extravagance of later campaigns, most notably the commercial featuring surfers sharing a wave with giant white horses, this is remarkably straightforward. The eyecatching headline declares: “This is the first advertisement ever issued in a national paper to advertise Guinness”. The ad ends with the famous slogan “Guinness is good for you”, though a nearby disclaimer makes it clear that no health benefits are now claimed for the stout.
Other exhibits that caught my eye included the tail of a German bomb dropped on a ship carrying Guinness in 1941, and a huge sculpture of a pint of Guinness. There’s a safe where a sample of the yeast used to make the stout was stored. The yeast is supposedly descended from the strain employed by the founder, though the fact that the wording on the accompanying signage begins “Legend has it…” suggests that this may be Irish blarney.
One of the many bombastic displays makes the claim that every pint of Guinness contains 30 million tiny gas bubbles – I wonder who counted them.
The self-guided tour ends in the rooftop Gravity Bar, where visitors can enjoy a pint of Guinness that’s included in the ticket price. Other outlets were shut when I visited because of Covid.
Gritty Part of Town
The brewery is in a rather gritty part of Dublin, and I found the views across the city underwhelming, perhaps because I went on a cloudy day. For all the talk of “the shimmering sliver of Dublin Bay” etc. on the Storehouse website, the fact is this is a capital that lacks an impressive skyline.
One final thing worth mentioning is the souvenir shop, which visitors pass through both on arrival and as they leave. It is in proportion to the rest of the place, ie huge, and stocks what is by far the largest range of branded merchandise I’ve ever seen. Guinness-flavoured sticky onion marmalade, anyone? Or would you prefer Guinness ground coffee?
Verdict: Overblown and underwhelming.
Main photo: Guinness toucan artwork on a brewery wall – it’s what things look like after too many pints.
NEED TO KNOW: Guinness Storehouse, Dublin, Ireland
GETTING THERE: The Storehouse is located in the west of the city. The official website says it’s a 20-minute walk from downtown Dublin, though I’d allow longer than that. The 123 bus takes you there, and the nearest tram stop is at St James’s Hospital next door. Free parking is available at nearby Crane Street.
OPENING HOURS: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 11 a.m.–6 p.m. (last entry 5 p.m.), Friday and Saturday 11 a.m.–7 p.m. (last entry 6 p.m.).
TICKETS: Adults from €18 ($21.20, £15.40). Children (5-17 years) €10.00, under-fours free. Family (two adults, two children) from €46.
COVID: Capacity limited to enable distancing, advance booking recommended, adults must show photo ID and proof of immunity, visitors must wear masks
CONTACT: St James’s Gate, Dublin 8, Ireland; +3531 408 4800; info@guinnessstorehouse.com.
August 2021
MORE INFO
THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE has an appropriately humungous amount of information to help you plan your visit. You can also buy tickets and order some of that Guinness merch. READ MORE
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IN WITH THE GIN CROWD: Thirty-five years ago I flew into the city of Malaga in southern Spain and immediately set off along the coast. That’s what you did back then, Malaga was just the place you flew to on your way to stylish Marbella or the Costa del Sol’s mass tourism hotspots of Torremolinos and Fuengirola… READ MORE
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Disclosure: Afaranwide is an affiliate of leading travel operators such as Japan Rail Pass and Global Work & Travel, and the language-learning tool Toucan. If you purchase through our site we receive, at no additional cost to you, a small commission. We only work with companies we have used and recommend.
LET'S KEEP IN TOUCH!
More is Less at the
Home of Guinness
COLIN SIMPSON
Brewery Visitor Attraction a Bitter Disappointment
Guinness Storehouse, Dublin
ON A TRIP to Dublin 20-something years ago I went along to the visitor centre at the St James’s Gate Brewery, the home of Guinness, and spent an enjoyable hour or two learning about the famous stout.
I remember finding the displays of Guinness adverts particularly interesting – the brand has a long-standing reputation for memorable, often quirky, commercials. Overall, it was a modest yet worthwhile tourist attraction. This summer I went back to St James’s Gate to find the visitor experience transformed. The centre has been relocated to the enormous former storehouse, where yeast was added to the brew, and the displays have been greatly expanded to fill seven floors.
It’s Ireland’s most popular tourist site, attracting 1.7 million visitors a year before Covid struck, and more than 20 million since it opened in 2000. High-tech displays bombard the visitor with information about yeast, malted barley and the like. But for me it was a case of more is less – or, referencing one of those famous ad campaigns, should that be Guinless? At the end of the day, how fascinating is a process that involves just four ingredients (barley, hops, yeast and water)?
Sure, the history of the business is moderately interesting, dating back as it does to 1759 when Arthur Guinness, the founder, signed a 9,000-year lease on the St James’s Gate site at £45 a year. But I can’t help thinking the detail would be of more interest to historians, business studies undergrads or branding geeks than your average tourist. The displays, and indeed the whole affair, is wildly overblown and too-clever-by-half. A copy of that historic lease, for example, is displayed under a sheet of glass set into the floor, making it difficult to read.
Pint-Shaped Atrium
Given that the Storehouse is described as offering an immersive experience, I found it curiously unengaging. Reading about it later, I learned that the seven stories are set around an atrium shaped like a giant pint of Guinness, something I didn’t notice when I was there.
Even the advertising displays seemed shrunken and diminished in such a vast setting. There are some interesting items on display, though, including, from 1929, the first-ever UK national newspaper Guinness ad. Given the extravagance of later campaigns, most notably the commercial featuring surfers sharing a wave with giant white horses, this is remarkably straightforward. The eyecatching headline declares: “This is the first advertisement ever issued in a national paper to advertise Guinness”. The ad ends with the famous slogan “Guinness is good for you”, though a nearby disclaimer makes it clear that no health benefits are now claimed for the stout.
Other exhibits that caught my eye included the tail of a German bomb dropped on a ship carrying Guinness in 1941, and a huge sculpture of a pint of Guinness. There’s a safe where a sample of the yeast used to make the stout was stored. The yeast is supposedly descended from the strain employed by the founder, though the fact that the wording on the accompanying signage begins “Legend has it…” suggests that this may be Irish blarney.
One of the many bombastic displays makes the claim that every pint of Guinness contains 30 million tiny gas bubbles – I wonder who counted them.
The self-guided tour ends in the rooftop Gravity Bar, where visitors can enjoy a pint of Guinness that’s included in the ticket price. Other outlets were shut when I visited because of Covid.
Gritty Part of Town
The brewery is in a rather gritty part of Dublin, and I found the views across the city underwhelming, perhaps because I went on a cloudy day. For all the talk of “the shimmering sliver of Dublin Bay” etc. on the Storehouse website, the fact is this is a capital that lacks an impressive skyline.
One final thing worth mentioning is the souvenir shop, which visitors pass through both on arrival and as they leave. It is in proportion to the rest of the place, ie huge, and stocks what is by far the largest range of branded merchandise I’ve ever seen. Guinness-flavoured sticky onion marmalade, anyone? Or would you prefer Guinness ground coffee?
Verdict: Overblown and underwhelming.
Main photo: Guinness toucan artwork on a brewery wall – it’s what things look like after too many pints.
NEED TO KNOW: Guinness Storehouse, Dublin, Ireland
GETTING THERE: The Storehouse is located in the west of the city. The official website says it’s a 20-minute walk from downtown Dublin, though I’d allow longer than that. The 123 bus takes you there, and the nearest tram stop is at St James’s Hospital next door. Free parking is available at nearby Crane Street.
OPENING HOURS: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 11 a.m.–6 p.m. (last entry 5 p.m.), Friday and Saturday 11 a.m.–7 p.m. (last entry 6 p.m.).
TICKETS: Adults from €18 ($21.20, £15.40). Children (5-17 years) €10.00, under-fours free. Family (two adults, two children) from €46.
COVID: Capacity limited to enable distancing, advance booking recommended, adults must show photo ID and proof of immunity, visitors must wear masks
CONTACT: St James’s Gate, Dublin 8, Ireland; +3531 408 4800; info@guinnessstorehouse.com.
MORE INFO
THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE has an appropriately humungous amount of information to help you plan your visit. You can also buy tickets and order some of that Guinness merch. READ MORE
RELATED
IN WITH THE GIN CROWD: Thirty-five years ago I flew into the city of Malaga in southern Spain and immediately set off along the coast. That’s what you did back then, Malaga was just the place you flew to on your way to stylish Marbella or the Costa del Sol’s mass tourism hotspots of Torremolinos and Fuengirola… READ MORE
MOUTAI & MAIDSTONE: Home of China’s national spirit and former brewing town in England have shared surprising turns of fortune through the centuries. READ MORE
RECOMMENDED
WELCOME TO OUR WORLD! Afaranwide’s home page – this is where you can find out about our latest posts and other highlights. READ MORE
TOP 10 VIRTUAL ATTRACTIONS: Many of the world’s most popular tourists sites are closed because of the coronavirus crisis, but you can still visit them virtually while you’re self-isolating. READ MORE
SHIMLA, QUEEN OF THE HILLS: Government officials once retreated to Shimla in the foothills of the Himalayas to escape India’s blazing hot summers. Now tourists make the same journey. READ MORE
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Disclosure: Afaranwide is an affiliate of leading travel operators such as Japan Rail Pass and Global Work & Travel, and the language-learning tool Toucan. If you purchase through our site we receive, at no additional cost to you, a small commission. We only work with companies we have used and recommend.
LET'S KEEP IN TOUCH!
More is Less at the
Home of Guinness
Brewery Visitor Attraction a Bitter Disappointment
COLIN SIMPSON
Guinness Storehouse, Dublin
ON A TRIP to Dublin 20-something years ago I went along to the visitor centre at the St James’s Gate Brewery, the home of Guinness, and spent an enjoyable hour or two learning about the famous stout.
I remember finding the displays of Guinness adverts particularly interesting – the brand has a long-standing reputation for memorable, often quirky, commercials. Overall, it was a modest yet worthwhile tourist attraction.
This summer I went back to St James’s Gate to find the visitor experience transformed. The centre has been relocated to the enormous former storehouse, where yeast was added to the brew, and the displays have been greatly expanded to fill seven floors.
It’s Ireland’s most popular tourist site, attracting 1.7 million visitors a year before Covid struck, and more than 20 million since it opened in 2000. High-tech displays bombard the visitor with information about yeast, malted barley and the like.
But for me it was a case of more is less – or, referencing one of those famous ad campaigns, should that be Guinless? At the end of the day, how fascinating is a process that involves just four ingredients (barley, hops, yeast and water)?
Sure, the history of the business is moderately interesting, dating back as it does to 1759 when Arthur Guinness, the founder, signed a 9,000-year lease on the St James’s Gate site at £45 a year.
But I can’t help thinking the detail would be of more interest to historians, business studies undergrads or branding geeks than your average tourist. The displays, and indeed the whole affair, is wildly overblown and too-clever-by-half. A copy of that historic lease, for example, is displayed under a sheet of glass set into the floor, making it difficult to read.
Pint-Shaped Atrium
Given that the Storehouse is described as offering an immersive experience, I found it curiously unengaging. Reading about it later, I learned that the seven stories are set around an atrium shaped like a giant pint of Guinness, something I didn’t notice when I was there.
Even the advertising displays seemed shrunken and diminished in such a vast setting. There are some interesting items on display, though, including, from 1929, the first-ever UK national newspaper Guinness ad. Given the extravagance of later campaigns, most notably the commercial featuring surfers sharing a wave with giant white horses, this is remarkably straightforward.
The eyecatching headline declares: “This is the first advertisement ever issued in a national paper to advertise Guinness”. The ad ends with the famous slogan “Guinness is good for you”, though a nearby disclaimer makes it clear that no health benefits are now claimed for the stout.
Other exhibits that caught my eye included the tail of a German bomb dropped on a ship carrying Guinness in 1941, and a huge sculpture of a pint of Guinness. There’s a safe where a sample of the yeast used to make the stout was stored. The yeast is supposedly descended from the strain employed by the founder, though the fact that the wording on the accompanying signage begins “Legend has it…” suggests that this may be Irish blarney.
One of the many bombastic displays makes the claim that every pint of Guinness contains 30 million tiny gas bubbles – I wonder who counted them.
The self-guided tour ends in the rooftop Gravity Bar, where visitors can enjoy a pint of Guinness that’s included in the ticket price. Other outlets were shut when I visited because of Covid.
Gritty Part of Town
The brewery is in a rather gritty part of Dublin, and I found the views across the city underwhelming, perhaps because I went on a cloudy day. For all the talk of “the shimmering sliver of Dublin Bay” etc. on the Storehouse website, the fact is this is a capital that lacks an impressive skyline.
One final thing worth mentioning is the souvenir shop, which visitors pass through both on arrival and as they leave. It is in proportion to the rest of the place, ie huge, and stocks what is by far the largest range of branded merchandise I’ve ever seen. Guinness-flavoured sticky onion marmalade, anyone? Or would you prefer Guinness ground coffee?
Verdict: Overblown and underwhelming.
Main photo: Guinness toucan artwork on a brewery wall – it’s what things look like after too many pints.
NEED TO KNOW: Guinness Storehouse, Dublin, Ireland
GETTING THERE: The Storehouse is located in the west of the city. The official website says it’s a 20-minute walk from downtown Dublin, though I’d allow longer than that. The 123 bus takes you there, and the nearest tram stop is at St James’s Hospital next door. Free parking is available at nearby Crane Street.
OPENING HOURS: Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 11 a.m.–6 p.m. (last entry 5 p.m.), Friday and Saturday 11 a.m.–7 p.m. (last entry 6 p.m.).
TICKETS: Adults from €18 ($21.20, £15.40). Children (5-17 years) €10.00, under-fours free. Family (two adults, two children) from €46.
COVID: Capacity limited to enable distancing, advance booking recommended, adults must show photo ID and proof of immunity, visitors must wear masks
CONTACT: St James’s Gate, Dublin 8, Ireland; +3531 408 4800; info@guinnessstorehouse.com.
MORE INFO
THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE has an appropriately humungous amount of information to help you plan your visit. You can also buy tickets and order some of that Guinness merch. READ MORE
RELATED
IN WITH THE GIN CROWD: Thirty-five years ago I flew into the city of Malaga in southern Spain and immediately set off along the coast. That’s what you did back then, Malaga was just the place you flew to on your way to stylish Marbella or the Costa del Sol’s mass tourism hotspots of Torremolinos and Fuengirola… READ MORE
MOUTAI & MAIDSTONE: Home of China’s national spirit and former brewing town in England have shared surprising turns of fortune through the centuries. READ MORE
RECOMMENDED
WELCOME TO OUR WORLD! Afaranwide’s home page – this is where you can find out about our latest posts and other highlights. READ MORE
TOP 10 VIRTUAL ATTRACTIONS: Many of the world’s most popular tourists sites are closed because of the coronavirus crisis, but you can still visit them virtually while you’re self-isolating. READ MORE
SHIMLA, QUEEN OF THE HILLS: Government officials once retreated to Shimla in the foothills of the Himalayas to escape India’s blazing hot summers. Now tourists make the same journey. READ MORE
TEN THINGS WE LEARNED: Our up-to-the-minute guide to creating a website, one step at a time. The costs, the mistakes – it’s what we wish we’d known when we started blogging. READ MORE
TROUBLED TIMES FOR EXPATS: Moving abroad can seem an idyllic prospect, but what happens when sudden upheavals or the inescapable realities of life intrude? READ MORE
Disclosure: Afaranwide is an affiliate of leading travel operators such as Japan Rail Pass and Global Work & Travel, and the language-learning tool Toucan. If you purchase through our site we receive, at no additional cost to you, a small commission. We only work with companies we have used and recommend.