Enjoy, Cammie. I'm sad to see this go.
For the record, my second try went even more smoothly, as I was able to keep temp. in the upper globe right around 200 the entire time. Coarsened up the grind a touch to 20F and got a shorter drawdown of 90 sec. If I'd had more time to experiment, I suspect I would have ended up splitting the difference re: grind.
Clean-up wasn't as bad as I expected. A dish wand/bottle brush helps.
I wonder how big of a contribution the siphon's stable (or even rising if you're not careful!) temperature profile makes in the cup? Can't think of another full-immersion-style brewer aside from that ridiculous Blossom prototype that doesn't lose heat during the steep.
Speaking of brewers, my everyday gadget is a Bunn Trifecta MB. I was struck by how close the cup quality/character is between that and the Yama (at least when using the glass rod). If I didn't own a Trifecta already and knew what I know now, I'd probably just buy a Yama or similar instead. That's not to say, though, that the cups from both were equivalent; Trifecta brought out more fruit, and Yama made a cup with slightly better structure overall IMO.
Thanks for the opportunity, y'all.