Well, the first kind is passionate, techno-geekish, record-keeping, educated palate, near-daily/multi-daily HB visitor, smart and up-to-date with gear, coffees, trends, and so on. . .

OTOH, after roasting for a decade +, I figure I'm the other kind: I sneak an HB peek a couple of times a week, have slight preferences for Brazils and Ethiops, get influenced by powerful raves, try to keep my stash below 10-15 lbs. Half my roasts are SOs, and the others are typically 2-variety (no more) blends.

Protocols that get too complex create a tension from info overload that swamps repeatability. My real-world lifestyle is to avoid record keeping, make peace with faulty-ish memory, actually drink no more than 3 shots a day, and appreciate variability that comes with ever-changing rest times, climate conditions, varietal changes and availability, and so forth

Oddly enough, after my machine, the most controlled aspect of my espresso might be my heatgun roasting. I got persuaded to buy some of Paradise's Espresso Nuevo. They suggest "dark roast" (whatever they mean by that.) Anyway, I tried it at just under 2nd c., and really liked it: But it seemed to lack some interest. Settled on a mix of the Nuevo and 40% Gedeo Worka (Klatch.) Brilliant! That's the way I do it. That's the way (sort of) the other half lives.

Don't want to offend anyone, but what kind of a roaster are you on this fabricated bi-polar scale?

I'm not quite as easy-going as that, but maybe someday...

Nice initial post.

I'm more on the geekish side of things. Temperature logging, generally not at peace with faulty memory (even though it actually is faulty), measure everything to the gram.

I'm going to make an effort to move to the "other" side, may help with my blood pressure.

Ahhhhhh, another fellow traveler.

Went through the whole anal retentive thing with beer. After my third extract brew put together a 15 gallon all grain gravity system and started brewing to style. Took the AHA beer judge program and got my certificate. After about 8 years of that, having done everything but decoction, settled on a home style large/small ale menu that netted 5 gals of strong ale(think Eye of the Hawk) for bottling, and 10 gals of session beer(3.5% +/-) for the tap. I used to live near blackberry patch and every fall did a blackberry porter.

Decided to keep the coffee thing relaxed. My first roaster was an iRoast2, and have since picked up a Behmor. I can't hear 'cracks', so have learned to go by eye. Started with Sweet Maria's espresso samples, and then started picking up other espresso blends from other suppliers, as well as one SO from Klatch. Have enjoyed seeing how each one comes out and evolves over time after roast. Most of my favorites seem to involve Ethiopians.

From what I can gather, it seems that I mostly roast to about city +, unless things get away from me or I panic and hit the cool button. I got into the whole coffee thing after a trip to Italy last year, and tend to wander in that direction with mine.

Hopefully this doesn't get me drummed out of the Corps.