Bar/fly: Guinness Storehouse, Dublin

The Guinness Storehouse in Dublin is a seven-storey temple to the history of Ireland's best known beer. Illustration / Rod Emmerson

Christoph Driessen samples black gold at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.

The rituals and solemnity seem borrowed from a highbrow wine-tasting event, with the sommelier, Aaron, declaring it an "iconic moment" as he pours beer into the glass.

First, he sniffs and deeply inhales the aroma of the filled glass, then takes his first swallow of the stout and lets the liquid lubricate his palate. The 16 participants in the tasting are watching reverently.

What's the fuss about? Rather than a top-class vintage from a famous vineyard, this is a freshly tapped pint of dark Guinness. Now it's up to the participants to do as Aaron has done.

"Don't just take a little sip," Aaron admonishes. "Make it a really deep swallow!" Proof of having done so comes moments later, when one's upper lip is covered, moustache-style, with the ale's thick creamy foam. Nothing less counts for true enjoyment.

White froth on a dark soul - that's how Guinness fans describe it.

But, also very important to remember, after swallowing, exhale again!

The venue for the beer-tasting is a cosy bar in the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, a seven-storey temple to the history of Ireland's best known beer. At 1.2 million visitors per year, the brewery is Ireland's biggest tourism attraction.

Visitors arrive by the busload and pay a hefty 18 ($31) to get in. The beer tasting in the bar costs another 46. Guinness intensely advertises its products and manages to make you pay for the advertising into the bargain. That's powerful.

Almost every other company would fail if it tried to charge a steep price for self-promotion.

But at Guinness it works for two reasons: First, this beer, as the most successful Irish export, represents the country in the tourist's mind. Secondly, the advertising is pretty clever in and of itself.

The museum is located in the historic brewery area in the Dublin district of The Liberties. The thick, soot-covered Victorian-era walls are testimony to the power of what was once the world's largest brewery.

The museum, which tends more towards the style of a theme park, is built around a glass atrium that evokes a Guinness pint glass.

Step by step, the production process is explained, and no effort is spared in the process. If the subject is water, then an entire waterfall comes roaring down in front of the visitors. Huge boilers, barrels and machines are presented as if they were sculptures. The information is a multimedia mix of sights, sounds and text.

The crowning glory of the Guinness Museum is the Gravity Bar, on the top floor of the building with fantastic 360-degree panoramic views over the entire city and out to the Irish Sea.

Here, visitors drink their "free" pint and quickly get into conversation with other people from all corners of the globe. And many leave the Storehouse toting bags filled with souvenirs.

- AAP