(electronic music)
- [Narrator] A journey only requires you
to put one foot in front of the other
again, and again, and again.
If you allow yourself the opportunity
to be present the entirety of the trek,
you witness beauty every step of the way.
(electronic music)
- Pretty good day.
Trying to stay out of the
elements, let the wind subside.
Traveled a little bit more East, stopped,
we got to see some pretty amazing sites.
(electronic music)
- Coming back to see this,
this beautiful glacier,
reminds me of the brewer
from Bryggjan Brugghús
where Arturo was talking
about hiking in Iceland.
It's one of his favorite
things that he loves to do,
and I can see why.
He was talking about, you know,
you're walking five minutes,
you go around a curve, and
you see something like this.
It's absolutely breathtaking.
- [Arturo] I grew up in a farm
just by the foothills in Mendoza,
that's the Argentina wine region.
And the mountains were never far.
I've always been very curious as well,
so it's always the thing
of reaching a point
and what there is a bit farther.
What behind that or there?
When I moved to Iceland,
you have seen the landscape,
it's just an invitation
put in front of you,
and in a few meters, a few kilometers,
there's so many things and so much change
in the nature and the landscape
that I just couldn't resist.
I fell in love with nature.
I see it like an expression of myself.
(rock music)
(electronic music)
- Hello, I'm Arturo.
I'm head brewer at
Bryggjan Brewery Brugghus,
Reykjavik, Iceland.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
(electronic music)
- This is brew number 200,
so it's pretty awesome.
- "Bryggjan" means "dock" in Icelandic.
- Yeah, yeah exactly.
- And this used to be a
fish processing facility.
- Dude, they did such a
great job on this place.
- There are eight tanks, and usually
half of them are busy with
the best selling beers.
- [Jeff] What's the best selling beer?
- Pilsner and Pale Ale.
(electronic music)
The next room is the malt room.
- Yup.
- [Arturo] There we are
going to be pouring grain
into the milk.
(Jeff agreeing)
- [Arturo] They mainly mix it
with water at the same time.
It makes a kind of porridge
and it just pumps straight
into the mash tun.
- [Jeff] Perfect.
- That is a first.
- Wow!
(air blowing)
- And here,
- Look at this system.
And this what we talked
about the difference.
Automated, right there man.
This is great.
- Start,
beep!
Let's go.
- Let's go.
(electronic music)
This is what you track, this
is like your recipe guide.
That's the recipe and
then you're just kind--
every minute, every--
You're just writing down.
- All the steps, extras we may have.
- Yup, because if the beer is later on,
something happens to it, you
can always refer back to this.
See where it went wrong.
(machine whirring)
- Looks fine but sometimes, in here,
there's still some-- you see?
- [Jeff] Oh yeah, just turn it.
They're blue
- So there is the starch there.
Not converted.
What is happening now is
the starch is disappearing.
It's a long chain is
being break in pieces.
It's not good because
it cannot be fermented.
It will not turn into sugar.
- Is that typical, I mean what you saw?
- No, very seldom.
- It's 200 vats man, you know what I mean,
it's gonna try to give you some problems.
We gotta fight it man.
- [Arturo] Of course
- We gotta fight it,
- But now we'll do it five minutes longer,
- [Jeff] Yeah.
- [Arturo] and for sure should be enough.
- [Jeff] Yeah.
- The machine is just finished,
and now the system is
pumping out from the mash tun
into a large tun for filtration.
(electro-pop music)
- Filtration ends.
- Oh, I would say yes.
(machine beeps)
- I love it.
I was just part of the brewing
process with one touch.
- [Arturo] The one touch man.
- One touch man.
(laughing)
(electro-pop music)
- [Jeff] Look at that.
Once again man.
Yesterday, I was over,
bending over shoveling it,
and now she's in the finger now.
- [Arturo] Yeah for now.
- For now.
(laughs)
You guys send this off to cattle farmers,
I'm sure you know typical.
- [Arturo] We were doing so, but
- Now you just throw it out in the dock?
- [Arturo] Yeah.
- This is how cod is actually
being fed in Iceland.
- That's why salmon is so good.
- [Jeff] Yeah.
(electro-pop music)
You gotta keep warm out here,
you don't need to get a coat.
- Yeah, I don't use a coat.
- Essentially starting at the bottom.
(laughing)
Right here.
I told him I gotta earn my beer
and this is how. (laughing)
- No short cut.
- No short cuts.
(laughing)
People would think it's a
geothermal spa over here,
come running over.
(laughing)
(electro-pop music)
- Coz' we've been boiling
for just about an hour,
- Yeah.
- So the moment they see us
pumping out into the whirlpool,
the main purpose is to
get rid of the hops.
(electro-pop music)
- I gotta earn my beer man.
- The whirlpool time is finished.
- [Jeff] Yeah.
- Then the wort, where hot
at the moment is still,
is gonna run through this
heat exchanger to cool it down
to match the temperature
during the fermentation tank.
And at the same time, we will
be adding oxygen through here,
to help the yeast to reproduce.
(electro-pop music)
- By the time I had to
start secondary school,
I was asked what I want.
And I never like it very
much, and I knew I want
to go in some agrarian direction.
So, I went to this literary
school then naturally
when this was finished,
I kept on going into the same institution
to a wine making university,
from this I was already working
in few wineries as a student.
Then I went to work to
a winery in Bolivia.
Then I met who would be
my wife, and later on
we moved to Iceland.
After some adaptation
time, I end up working
in the main brewery here.
I spent there, at the beginning,
like permanent worker,
and as seasonal because I
needed to go back to Argentina
to continue my learning.
The time passed during that I was jumping
from between brewery and winery.
And then we decide to
stay here in Iceland.
This place I was working
for, the position there,
I felt a bit stuck.
Then I decided to have a change.
I found Bryggjan, that was about to start.
We got in contact.
From the very beginning,
you know when you connect
with people, this is where I want to work,
and seems to me I was the
people they were looking for.
Then we started, and over
these two years has been
a lot of challenge because the
place started from scratch,
and we're growing very quickly.
I'm really excited and
very happy to be here.
I have complete freedom of creation,
and also complete freedom of
not knowing where we're going.
Which is pretty good as well.
- [Jeff] You can see
it's getting transferred.
(incoherent conversation)
- [Brewer] You can also
see that's slowly level.
- [Jeff] It's a bunch
of yeast high fiving.
(incoherent conversation)
With primary fermentation, it would take,
for this beer, probably five, four days
- [Jeff] Yeah.
- It's an ale, we ferment
it relatively warm,
so it will be finish quick.
But then, you know, the aging step begins,
which again for this
beer two, three weeks,
and then it's fine, it's done.
- By the way, there's something
that was really special
about this brew that we did today.
It was, you told me, it was the 200.
200
- 200, why I can't believe it.
It's coz it passed so quickly.
- [Jeff] Yeah.
It feels good to be part of this 200.
(laughing)
I feel honored.
No real hiccups.
The automated system did its job.
You did your job obviously.
Checks and balances, so it was really cool
to be able to brew an amber ale.
- I was happy yesterday,
when I realized it
because I thought you, Jeff and guys,
are coming, right today.
This day.
Yeah it's gonna be like a milestone.
(electro-pop music)
- One of my traditions
is to pass on a brewery
that I've learned from,
where I traveled to,
to the next brewery
that I've learned from.
I will tell you that I've got three beers
right here on your desk.
- Nice.
- They're all from South Africa.
The first one is from, Blackhorse,
from the youngest female
brewer in South Africa.
She's making double IPA there.
The second one are from Urban Brewery,
already winning awards.
They've only been around
for similar, two years.
Your beers from South Africa
have made it to Iceland, so.
- Thanks so much
- Cheers man!
(both agreeing simultaneously)
- Enjoy it.
(electro-pop music)
(pumping air)
- [Jeff] Take those back home, my man.
- There's only one way, sold.
- [Jeff] Yup.
(laughing)
- [Jeff] Exactly.
(laughing)
- Slow and perfect.
(laughing)
(electro-pop music)
