The walkway over the Guinness Hopstore. Notice all the buses. Naturally, the Guinness Brewery and Hopstore is a popular place. A Tom Marihart photo.
After all of our corpse viewing, it was time for some alcohol. So, it was off to the Guinness Brewery. This place is huge. It easily takes up several blocks of prime downtown Dublin real estate. It even has its own power generation plant on the grounds in order to ensure a steady supply of power for the factory.
Visitors go to the hopstore across the street from the actual brewery. At the hopstore is a tour detailing the Guinness history and the beer's brewing process (what they will tell you of it). I didn't go on this tour. I was told by several people exiting the building that it didn't give any real information about the beer. However, one does get a pint at the tour's end.
Also at the hopstore is the giftshop. All I have to say is that if Guinness stopped making beer, they'd still make a fortune with the merchandise they sell. Every item imaginable can be found there, all with the Guinness name and logo. What a racket!
Finally, a word about the beer. I'd been told that Guinness tastes better
in Ireland than anywhere else in the world. IT'S TRUE!!!!! I've always thought
that Guinness was a rather plain bitter stout, until I tried it in Dublin.
Suddenly, this smooth, rich, non-bitter beer crossed my lips and I realized
that the Irish have been defrauding the world for years with some cheap
imitation of this wonderful beer. Obviously, the rest of the world gets
the bottom of the barrel. The real stuff is kept in Ireland. I will never
drink Guinness again here in the States. I've had the real thing, there's
no going back.
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