Shortcut key to open/apply profile in Terminal
To Create a new Window or Tab with a Specific Profile
You can assign keyboard shortcuts to the items in the Shell &gt; New Window and New Tab submenus using System Preferences &gt; Keyboard &gt; Shortcuts &gt; App Shortcuts to add shortcuts to Terminal.
For example, if you add

Homebrew ⌥⌘9

to the preferences, typing ⌥-⌘-9 will open a new terminal window with the Homebrew profile.
If you want to assign keys for creating tabs, you'll need to explicitly refer to the New Tab submenu using “-&gt;”. For example, I have this in my preferences:

Shell-&gt;New Tab-&gt;Homebrew ⌥⇧⌘9

Typing ⌥-⇧-⌘-9 will open a new tab with the Homebrew profile.
To Apply a Profile to the Current Terminal
You can change the profile of the current terminal using the Inspector window. You can use Shell &gt; Show/Hide Inspector ⌘I to show or hide the Inspector. In the Inspector’s Settings tab you can use the keyboard to select a new profile—you can use the up/down arrow keys or type the name of a profile.