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The folks at Mill City Roasters - link to the online "Roaster School" said something like, 'If the boss asks me what I learned roasting today, and I could not answer with some knowledge I gained from the roasting session, they should fire me.'

A Roast is not so much as about the end of the journey, but the roads taken to get there. You can have two roasts that look exactly the same with one being delicious and the other's only claim that you were able to expectorate the entire mouthful into the sink while keeping your shoes unsoiled.

That journey, the roads taken, is the profile. A good example are two city roasts; one done in a controllable roaster for about ten to twelve minutes, and the same roast level done in a basic air roaster like a popper or Hearthware Precision, finished in five to six minutes.

The Mill City Roaster School (linked above) is an excellent resource to learn about roasting and a very good start to learning about profiles. Maybe less valuable to home roasters is Scott Rao's "The Coffee Roasters Companion." I improved my roasts using his thoughts, but when I bought the book I had just over 15 years experience in home roasting.