Thursday: A Drop of the Black Stuff*

(*Have totally given up on the rhyming now)

I actually don't like Guinness.

I can say that now, but obviously didn't say it (loudly) while going round the brewery. Last time I managed my free (half) pint at the top of the Guinness Storehouse, but this time opted for Coke.



The exhibition has changed a bit, and has lots of new videos of the master brewer bloke explaining the ins-and-outs of how they make the stuff. I'll short-cut it for you - it's barley and hops and yeast and water and they basically mush it up and swirl it around a lot. It's what makes it taste vile.

Much more interesting are the other bits:

You can webcam yourself to friends and relatives...



You can leave a message about Guinness for others to read. Here's one in Italian which proves I did do some revision during the Easter break...



You can avoid getting wet and slipping on the tiles near the big waterfall...



You can look at the Guinness advertising exhibition, which is great - all sorts of bizarre things with toucans and harps and white horses and that funny dancing bloke and, most bizarre of all, Clannad...



(Scary 80s hair. Perhaps that's what Guinness does to you.)

You can see for miles from the Gravity Bar...



...even getting high enough up to see the whole 64 acres of the brewery spread out before you!* Arthur Guinness took a 9000 year lease on the site, so they will be brewing for some time to come, I imagine...



(*not really)

If you can prove you know loads about Guinness, the master brewer bloke from the videos sends you a certificate...



...which I shall keep in case I don't get my Italian GCSE and have a frame spare...