Even though I wasn’t their target customer (at least I hope I wasn’t), I found myself humming along whenever I saw big, burly, bearded lorry drivers knocking back bottles of that beer on the television screen. So when I had the chance to visit the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, well, I couldn’t resist.

Firstly, they’ve done an amazing job with the attraction although I think this is what they mean by creating an experience as opposed to an attraction. And it shows the power of a brand – that so much could be weaved into and told around what is essentially a bottle of barley, hops, yeast and water.

I admit, not a big fan of the drink but definitely a fan of the story which began in 1759 when Arthur Guinness signed a lease for 55 acres of an unused brewery for 9,000 years at £45 per year. Clearly a visionary and great negotiator as well as a prolific procreator – he had 21 children with one wife (so the official records say).

The brand stayed in the family for six generations until it merged with Grand Metropolitan to form Diageo PLC in 1997. From the story of the man, we went on to the story of how the beer is made – between 3 and 3.5 million pints are brewed everyday at this St James Gate Brewery.

So first the barley, all grown in Ireland – it’s the 10% roasted barley that gives Guinness that dark colour. Add in the hops that come from Australia and New Zealand, throw in yeast and then water – eight million litres of water a day are piped in from the Wickslow Mountains.

The mixture is left to ferment for two-and-a-half days and then placed in wooden staved vessels (left) for 7-10 days. Apparently it takes craftsmen seven years to become a qualified cooperage. The story of transportation is also wrapped up around the brand – how it was transported through the years by different types of barges, ships and railways with one of the last ships built at the same Belfast shipyard what built the Titanic.

To engage all senses, there’s an “aromatherapy” room (below) where you get to smell the various scents of hops and a class where you are taught the proper way to drink a Guinness – elbow at right angle and tip it down as stoutly as you can manage, if you please, sir. 

The highlight is the Guinness Academy where you get to draw your own pint. Who knew it was so complicated? You need to do it in two steps – see videos below. Anyway, I flunked but still got my certificate – it helps to know friends in strange places.

My favourite is the room that tells the story of Guinness advertising and I love the old printed ads. The term “good for you” was coined as early as 1929 – and animal icons were used liberally, my favourite is the toucan.

The iconic harp logo (adopted in 1862) is at the centre of this – and there’s an “interactive” harp which plays when you move your fingers over it. Fun. (Good story here on the evolution of Guinness advertising)

Eubhlin Roche, media relations manager, was put in charge of sorting through the family archives, something she’s been doing since 2001. She tells me she’s only halfway through and if you were to put all the paper in the archives together, it’d stretch 7km. I think this fact can only be put together by someone who spends a lot of time in dark rooms.

But Eubhlin is all light when she talks about the Guinness story. Over Guinness beef pie and of course stout (this was my third pint in under 2 hours and it’s only 12 noon), she said, “This is more than a product, it’s the social history of Ireland. Thousands of men worked for Guinness and their lives are wrapped around it. There are still people working here whose great grandfather also worked for the company.”

During the first world war, one-third of the workforce left to fight in the trenches.

The Guinness Storehouse received 1.1 million visitors in 2013 and the mix has changed. When it first opened in 2000, the mix was 50% UK, 25% US and the rest Europe. Now it sees more Europeans (France, Germany and Italy the top markets) and Asians. It has audio guides in several languages and two Chinese-speaking tour guides.

Sixty percent of pure tourists who come through Dublin Airport end up at the storehouse where, at the end of the tour, end up buying merchandise. It’s Guinness Galore – from crisps, to nuts, to T-shirts, mugs, caps. Who knew that Guinness crisps have such a good reputation in Singapore that on our shopping list were two crates of crisps? 

Celebrating its 250^th anniversary, the beer has made it into modern times. Our guide told us that one million points of Guinness are consumed on average a day worldwide which equates to 10 million glasses. It is now the core of Diageo’s beer business – the website says, “Arguably one of only a few truly global beer brands, Guinness sells over 2 billion pints every year in over 150 countries.”

The brand is now active on social media with Eubhlin saying they were spending less on traditional media and more on digital. Within the storehouse is an interactive wall which encourages people to “like” the brand. Your name will go to the home market teams who will send you an email when you get home. And of course, yes, there’s free wifi.

From that first 55 acres in Dublin, today Guinness has breweries in four other places – Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana in Africa, and one in Malaysia. And yes, you guessed it, Africa and Asia are the future areas of growth – Guinness is particularly well-liked by consumers in Malaysia and Indonesia.

The last stop on the tour is the rooftop bar where you can see the whole of Dublin. A great space for a party. It is packed with tourists from everywhere. As a group of young noisy lads walked in, I asked Eubhlin how they handle people who may have tasted too many pints. She says, “We take responsible drinking very seriously and we have people who are trained to handle such incidents.”

I swear I didn’t finish that last pint even though it may have been good for me.