The Guinness Storehouse is set in the middle of the original Guinness Brewery, St. James Gate, Dublin. It's got everything you need to know about Guinness, from its history to its production to its marketing.

The tour is self-guided, so you get to wander among the tour floors at your leisure. It (logically) starts with a display on the ingredients of guinness, most of which is under a waterfall. Then you move through the areas about the production of Guinness, where we got a picture of me in a copper brewing tun.

From there it went on to displays about storage and distribution, where we saw an example of one of their gigantic storage vats. This section also had a very cool display about coopering (the making of barrels), including a little 15-minute video. I had no idea how much work went into those things!

Next we went on to the marketing section, where we got to see all sorts of posters, signs, and various doodads created for their advertising campaigns over the years, including a bit about the origins of the Guinness Book of Records. (Yes, it was created to help settle bar bets.) The best part of the exhibit, though, was the commercials archive - they had dozens of them on personal video monitors, dating back a couple of years. And as I'm sure you're aware, beer commercials are usually the most entertaining representatives of that genre, and these didn't disappoint.

Unfortunately by that point it was getting close to closing time, so we didn't spend as much time in the marketing section as I would've liked. We had to get a move on to make sure we got our free samples of Guinness.

The complimentary pints are served in a bar on the top floor of the Storehouse, called Gravity. It's circular with glass all around the outside, and is probably at at the highest points in Dublin, so it's got some great views:
cold storage tanks in the brewery
city skyline
more city skyline
a view into the nearby hills

Naturally, we hit the gift shop on the way out, where I got some Guinness-flavored goodies along with the 2003 edition of the Book of Records. Heading on out the door, we paused briefly to get a couple shots of me with their outdoor sign:
me just under the big sign
head shot of me with the sign in the background (wearing my favorite shirt)