Gravity Bar, Guinness Storehouse, Dublin, Ireland

Designer: Imagination Ltd and Robinson Keefe Devane 2000

How to prospect for Irish black gold:

1. Hold a glass at an angle to the beer tap.
2. Pull the handle to a horizontal position.
3. Fill the glass until it is three-quarters full.
4. Allow the beer to settle completely.
5. Top the beer off by pushing the handle forward slightly.
6. Allow the head to rise just above the rim.
7. Take a sip from a perfect pint of Guinness.
8. Now visit the motherlode and compare.

Lovers of the celebrated Irish stout make the pilgrimage in droves to a modern glass and steel visitors centre located in a former fermentation plant within the main brewing complex.

Each visitor to the Guinness Storehouse is handed a palm-sized Lucite pebble that contains a droplet of beer and entitles him or her to a complimentary tipple. To redeem it, they take an elevator to the roof and step out ("Wow! Where am I?") into the circular glass minimalist Gravity Bar with a breathtaking panorama of Dublin. Exchange the pebble for a perfect pint of Guinness then grab one of the blue Arne Jacobsen Swan chairs on the perimeter and thrill at this unique vantage point. Ireland's capital has few high-rise buildings so the view is unimpeded no matter what direction. If there had to be only one reason why the Guinness Storehouse is Ireland's Number 1 tourist destination, then this is it. At night when the Gravity Bar lights are illuminated, sitting atop a 30 metre high atrium in the shape of a giant glass that rises up the core of the Storehouse, it resembles the creamy head of a pint of Guinness. Pure genius.

Photographer: Helen Peyton