Koushi-chan: The green elf

And the last day... was hard to bring myself back to Hungary. :) Mostly that I had to work next day (just turned out later that I miscalculated my holidays and still have 4 days left :o ... brain damage).
Just to be sure first I headed to the airport, to be over the stressful part. After that I lugged all of my luggage (18+10 kg) into the city center and had an idea to visit the Guinness Storehouse. I became a big fan, although I hate beer, but this one is heavenly! It is not so bitter and the whip on the top tastes like a cappuccino :)

Guinness Storehouse
OK, let's make a beer! What do we need? Exactly 5 things are the basics for a good Guinness:

Barley - they use Irish barley
Hops - did you know that it can grow very high - even to 5 meters? It produces natural fragrances and oils, which adds flavours to the beer.
Water - comes form the close Wicklow Mountains (D3-D5 hiking trips!), every day 8 million litres! This is the reason why they established the brewery here, more than 350 years ago.
Yeast - it is grown in Dublin, and from the early 19th century the yeast from each brew is transferred on to the next, there is always a small amount locked int the director's safe :)
Talent :) - Arthur Guinness established this brewery in 1759 and signed a leasing contract for 9000 years, including the access for the city's watersource. Clever guy ;)

OK, we have our 5 ingredients, let's make beer! Not really difficult: the barley is malted, roasted (at 230 degree for about 2.5 hours, only in the last 5-10 minutes changes its color), cooled down, milled, mixed with hot water and mashed.
It is filtered off and boiled with the hops (at 100 degree for 70 minutes).
Then the yeast is added and the fermentation begins (2 days).
At the end it is clarified, matured and ready for packing into barrels. :)

For perverts, like me, an interesting screenshot.

After that comes the enjoy of the beer (needed sense-organ is the eye), then the testing (eye, nose, tongue). Interesting - at least for me: you have to leave the draught beer alone for 2 minutes for self-clarification. When it is poured into the glass, it is an ugly whitish brew, like it would be only foam. And it starts to clarify and became the well-known black beauty.

The expensive ticket included either to teach me how to draw off beer or a pint of Guinness on the 7th floor Gravity Bar (or a cola... hahaha...). The queue was too long at the draught and I was a bit unsure about my own abilities, therefore I chose the bar. Was a really weird feeling, like a daylight disco with panorama onto the whole city!