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My recommendation to any newbie is to roast one coffee until you find =
the sweet spot for you.  Looking over my notes from 16 years ago, I =
discovered that I was roasting too light!  Maybe you are roasting too =
dark!  I don't know.  If you like high acid coffee, I would suggest that =
you get one of Tom's Central American Coffee's that is less than $5.00 a =
pound and roast up about 4 or 5 batches at 30 sec. intervals after first =
crack (making sure your roaster cools after each roast so that the =
profile is the same), and do your own cupping test.  I would make sure =
that I let it rest at least 24 hours.  I have discovered that for =
myself, I tend to roast all of my coffee's to about the same roast.  =
There are some exceptions, but I think that each of us need our own base =
(sweetspot).  I would avoid Costa Rican LaMineta as your test bed as =
this has been one of the hardest coffees to find the sweetspot for me =
and it is well over the $5.00 a pound.  However, once it is found, it is =
a great cup!  What I think is a great cup, you may find so so!  That is =
why we homeroast!  I want coffee to taste the way I want it.  There are =
coffees I now enjoy at a cinnamon roast and some at a very dark French =
roast.  I won't tell you what my sweetspot is because it is MY =
sweetspot, and it may not be yours!
Good luck, and have some fun with it!  This isn't rocket science!
Les