Day Drinking...

Today our plans included two tours: The Guinness Factory and the Jameson Factory. You might as well hit them both in the same day right? First, at the Guinness Factory, we took full advantage of our ten Euro entrance fee as we not only learned the history of Guinness, found out how it is made, and poured our own pint of beer, but also attended a Guinness tasting and food pairing!

After our informative tour, everyone was presented with a small taste of “the black stuff” (which we learned is actually a dark shade of ruby). The man giving us the taste saw three enthusiastic girls and offered us tickets to do a Guinness tasting that started in a few minutes. Who would say no to that? Upstairs we joined another group of girls (on Holiday from grad school at USC) in tasting three different types of Guinness: Guinness Draught, Guinness Extra Stout, and Guinness Foreign Extra Stout. We learned about each one, how they were different, and the correct way to taste them. I thought this was so cool! The draught was my favorite (if any one was curious) because it had the least carbonation and the most prominent notes of coffee – I can’t stand carbonated drinks!

After the tasting we hit up the next event which was a Guinness and food pairing. All the recipes were made with Guinness and paired with the appropriate variation of the beer. Our first bite was Guinness bread with whipped cream cheese and smoked salmon and then a Guinness infused chocolate truffle. Was so delish I wish there were more!

Before our Guinness experience was over we could not forget to get our free pint of beer that was included in the tour. Here we opted to learn the precise way to pour our very own pint. We even got a certificate!

 

I remember my brother telling me he sold his beer to a friend when he was here, but there was no way I was giving mine up! I guess I have more of my grandmother’s genes – what a champ!

Although we were sad to leave the Guinness factory after such a good time, we left in route to a similar type of factory – Jameson Irish Whisky! After our guided tour we were all presented with a mixed drink. I was hoping for an Irish coffee but they sadly didn’t offer it with the tour. I opted for the whiskey and ginger ale instead. At the end of the tour they asked for volunteers to be whiskey tasters. Our very own, brave Tiffany got picked!

She was able to try Jameson, Jack Daniels, and Scotch and taste the differences. Kind of glad I wasn’t picked – whiskey is definitely not my cup of tea and gagged at the smell of Tiffany’s tasters. I guess it’s all about the Guinness for me!