Sống Động
Roasting Guide: Sống Động with Lukas Bremmer
About the Roasting Guide:
With our Roasting Guide, we regularly introduce roasters from our network and provide insights into their work with our coffees. Each issue shows why they chose a particular green coffee, how they understand it sensorily, and what considerations go into developing their roast profile.
The text, technical details, and all photos are created in collaboration with the featured roasters. The result is a format that combines expertise, signature style, and personality and showcases the people who make every coffee special.
Tell us something about you and your job.
“ I’m Lukas, the founder of roest space in Kassel, Hesse, Germany. I started getting into specialty coffee some time around 2016. In early 2019, I began working in the industry by starting off as a barista also making my first experiences roasting coffee myself. In late 2021 I took over the roastery that is now roest space. I bought the Giesen W6A we use today and quickly started focusing more on dedicated light omni profiles for our coffees. As times are changing surrounding coffee and climate, I now strive to work more sustainably and future oriented which is why my team and I love working together with cumpa to redefine the boundaries of coffee. Adding Canephora and other species to our line up on a regular basis has proven to me, us and our customers how much of coffee’s potential we have yet to discover.“
Why did you choose this coffee?
“I chose to purchase Sống Động Carbonic Maceration because I had the chance to try it on the cupping table at Frankfurt Coffee Festival. For me it was the standout bean featuring the most unique notes of all coffees which left a lasting impression with me.”
What product are you creating from it?
“We roast Sống Động Carbonic Maceration as a light omni roast which we use for shots and filter coffees alike. The coffee works fantastically in both use cases showcasing the unusual and interesting notes of the species.”
How do you approach developing a roast profile?
“To create our roast profiles, I usually reference parameters I have acquired in advance. I take into consideration a coffee’s altitude it has been grown on, its processing as well as its variety and bean size respectively. In the case of Sống Động (being a Liberica / Excelsa) I also focused heavily on the moisture contents of the beans, density measurements I have taken beforehand as well as sample roasts I had done prior. In the end I try to cater every profile to display a specific coffee’s most captivating features.”
Which roasting machine do you use?
“We roast all of our coffees on a Giesen W6A propane roaster.”
Technical specifications
“As for the profile in particular the Liberica / Excelsa is situated somewhere between classic Arabica profiles and typical Canephora profiles. To grant a more even roast of the two different species, I opted for a slightly smaller batch size of 3.7 kg (as opposed to 4 kg). I aimed for a steady decline of the RoR (rate of rise) with slowly declining burner power in 10% increments. Going from the drying- into the yellowing- and the final phase of the roast, I slowly shifted the heat transfer by lowering the drum speed while increasing the air flow. In terms of development, I was aiming for a DT (development time) between Canephora and Arabica while its end temperature is closer to that of regular Arabica roasts. Colour-wise the beans appear slightly darker than our Arabica roasts.”
How do you describe the taste?
“The flavour of Sống Động Carbonic Maceration is unlike any coffee we have ever had in our line up before. It features strong notes of sweet stout beer and tropical fruit like mango as well as sweet barley malt and a distinctive resemblance to stevia as the coffee turns almost artificially sweet when cooled down. Depending on the DT of the roast, you can shift the focus from a balanced maltiness (longer) to more sweet fruit forward notes (shorter). With a good extraction, shots and filters showcase almost the same notes at different intensity levels. For our brews we are using our Canephora extractions.”
