Ireland Part 2: Guinness & Jameson

Guinness Brewery

The first day that we landed, we had free to ourselves which is when we saw most of the historical places. Friday, we were booked for a VIP group tour of the Guinness Brewery which we were all excited about!

The original lease from the 1700s was for 9,000 years for 49 pounds a year. The city still honors the lease, including the clause that provides the brewery with free access to the city’s water (which by the way tastes amazing, can drink it right out of the tap!). Guinness also paid off the rest of their lease so 4 of the acres they are on are pretty much theirs. LoL.

This was one of the original barrels that they fermented the barley in.  It was about 3 stories tall!  Pretty neat.  I didn’t take many photos because it was dark.  They gave us a sample about half way through the tour in little half pint glasses (did you know you can order a half pint at an of the bars?  I wish they did that here!)

The tour ends on the top floor where you get a free pint of Guinness in the Gravity Bar which is all glass and has a 360 degree view of Dublin.  Very cool!  Dublin is very flat and all the buildings are short so you could see pretty much everything.  Our taxi driver on the way back to the airport on Monday told us that you aren’t allowed to build tall buildings to keep the airspace clear.  Interesting!

Fun Facts:
1/3 of the beer they brew stays in the country!
If you work for Guinness, it is for life, and you get a crate of beer every month
Bottled beer and kegged beer are made differently so they really are different!

Jameson Historic Distillery

Next, Rob and I decided to head over to the Jameson Distillery and some of the guys decided to tag along.  I think we all enjoyed that tour better.  For me, it was because it was more historic I think.  They talked more about the company than anything else.

I hardly took any photos because it was so dark.  They went through the distilling process and taught us all how it is done.  They had some of the original hardware too.  Their new distillery is in another city now so this was just a historic place.  At the end, we got a sample of their 12 year whiskey which is only sold in Ireland.  It tastes delicious with Cranberry juice by the way!  Ha!

Drinks

I had a ton of Guinness while I was there.  I am not a drinker but you know, when in Dublin?  I tried a couple of other beers but pretty much stuck to the local brew.  It was delicious!  And did you know there is a proper way to pour it? They pour it about 3/4 full and then set it down (by the way, it takes forever to get one at a pub so order it when you are almost done your current one).  They let it settled and then top it off so you get the perfect amount of foam on top of you properly marked pint.  (They serve it to you at this point but you still have to let it settle before drinking it!)  Just for kicks, last night at dinner, I ordered a Guinness here in the states and was sadly disappointed.  They didn’t pour it right so the foam was all off.  I was at an “Irish pub”.  Someone should revoke that title.  And for fun, I took a picture of every drink I had: