The Guinness Storehouse in Dublin: 5 Questions with Mark McGovern

Guinness Storehouse
By Mark McGovern

The Guinness Storehouse in Dublin is Ireland's top tourist attraction. Mark McGovern is Guinness Storehouse's Media Relations Manager. He has worked for the Storehouse for 8 years in both marketing and operations roles. In honor of St. Patrick's Day, we decided to ask him a few questions...

1. What can people expect when they visit the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin?

Guinness Storehouse is Ireland’s number one international visitor attraction with over 1.15 million visitors last year. The tour takes place over 7 floors and one of these floors is dedicated to Guinness & Food. On five, we share some of our signature recipes and explain to visitors how they can enjoy different variants of Guinness with alternative dishes. By far the most popular request is our Beef & Guinness stew. Other popular recipes include our Guinness Brown bread, Mussels in a Guinness cream sauce and some of our sweet desserts such as Guinness chocolate Mousse and truffles. During our St. Patrick’s Festival at Guinness Storehouse last year, we gave out over 18,000 complimentary servings of Irish Smoked salmon on Guinness brown bread.

2. Can you tell us about the Gravity Bar?

Gravity Bar is the highlight of many people’s visit to Guinness Storehouse. Where better to enjoy your perfect pint of Guinness than overlooking the city of Dublin offering 360 degree panoramic views. Gravity Bar is 44 metres in height, which in a low lying city like Dublin gives us views over the whole city as well as mountains to the south and the Irish sea to the east.

Gravity Bar
Gravity Bar

3. Give us a brief history of Guinness beer

Arthur Guinness signed the original lease on the St. James’s Gate brewery in 1759. We celebrated our 250 year anniversary in 2009. This lease involved an initial payment of £100 and then a fee of £45 per year for a period of 9,000 years! It is worth noting that figure sounds small but £100 was a large sum of money back in the 1700s. The lease gave Arthur access to a dilapidated brewery that occupied 4 acres. We still brew at St. James Gate today and the brewery has expanded to approximately 55 acres. Guinness is the world’s biggest selling stout, with over 10 million glasses of Guinness enjoyed every day in approximately 150 countries.

4. How do you celebrate St. Patrick's Day at the Guinness Storehouse?

In 2014, Guinness Storehouse will be hosting a 4 day festival from the 14th through the 17th of March. We believe everyone is Irish on St. Patrick's Day and this year we will be celebrating with the very best of Irish entertainment. There will be live music including the Irish rock band, The Coronas who will kick-off the weekend, ceilí dancers, gastro-GUINNESS® food tastings, live 6 nations Rugby action, face painting, and much more.

Guinness Storehouse
Guinness Storehouse

5. Give us an unknown bit of trivia about Guinness that we can use to impress our friends the next time we're at a pub

Did you know it takes approximately 119.5 seconds to pour the perfect pint of Guinness. At the Guinness Academy at Guinness Storehouse, you can learn how to pour the perfect pint and you will receive a certificate for your efforts!

Bonus: How many pints are in a keg? 88 pints.

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