History by the pint
Legendary Guinness stout has been brewed in Dublin since 1759
Entering St. James’s Gate to the Guinness Storehouse makes a beer buff as wide-eyed as Charlie in the chocolate factory.
Gazing from the base of the world’s largest pint glass, where our seven-storey tour winds skyward to an observation deck and, shockingly, a Guinness bar, there’s activity on every floor, at every turn.
Dublin is dotted with fine museums and sites, but Guinness is Irish history in liquid stout. This isn’t just a fivesenses journey through the nine-day brewing process, but a fascinating glimpse at the family’s legacy in the city, the nation and the 120 countries where the dark stuff is exported.
Cal, one of many multilingual guides, starts us literally at the bottom on the cobblestones of the old fermentation room. One stage up, the 9,000-year lease Arthur Guinness arranged in 1759 is preserved beneath our feet. That’s Arthur’s signature on every bottle with the Irish harp modelled on that of medieval king Brian Boru (the original is on display at nearby Trinity College).
Arthur and wife Olivia had 21 children — 10 that lived to adulthood — and Arthur was one of the first Irish businessmen to see to the well-being of workers and their large families.
All brewery workers were afforded some sort of housing and pension.
And the company’s early first aid policies are said to have been adapted by St. John Ambulance.
Guinness employed up to 300 barrel coopers alone, whose casks are still on display with the miniature trains and wagons that moved them.
Coopers were used right up to the 20th century.
To mark its 200th anniversary in 1959, thousands of special bottles were dropped overboard from ocean freighters around the world, containing messages to contact the company for a prize.
They are still being found more than a half-century later, with one on display here, amid every shape and size of bottle the company ever used.