Guinness Factory Tour

On Monday, we went to city center and toured the Guinness Factory. Yes, I actually did just say on Monday! My classes were over at noon, so we agreed to get together then. We expected it to be relatively quiet because it was a Monday, but we were completely wrong. There were people everywhere. On the tour, we went into the tasting room, where we would get a sensual experience of Guinness. We walked down a dark hallway into a bright white room. It was supposed to "shock" our senses. There were 4 pillars in the bright room, with steam spewing from them. We took turns going to each and running our noses over the steam to understand and appreciate every component of a glass of Guinness. Afterwards, we went into a smaller room, where we learned how to correctly sample a Guinness. Here it is:
1. Put your elbow out to the side. This forces you to bring the glass up to you, instead of putting your head down into the glass and tasting only the bitter taste of the nitrogen in the head of the beer
2. Never sip it, always take a decent sized drink. Supposedly sips only take in the nitrogen which throws off the taste (I'm skeptical-- I think this might be a scheme to make you drink more Guinness!)
3. Swirl the Guinness around your mouth for a few seconds before swallowing to expose your taste buds to all the tastes including the roasted barley and hops.
4. Enjoy!

After, we learned how to correctly pour a Guinness, and enjoyed one at the top of the factory in a glass room with 360 degree panorama views of the city of Dublin. It was incredible. We joked, asking if anyone actually worked in Dublin. We stayed for quite a while, just admiring the views of the city.