In case there are other clueless people like me out there, be sure to search HB and the Internet for "bean defects" and conduct a hyper-vigilant post-roast culling. If you make decisions about your roast based on flavours (such as grassy, sour, etc.) you need to be sure you're not suffering from a handful of bad beans. Although I source my beans from a highly-reputable place, a realistic view means there are still going to be enough defective beans to distort the coffee experience... and to make it inconsistent. It's easy to start attributing other factors to those taste distortions like grind, brew time, etc.

I went from culling obvious quakers (more light-coloured beans than the rest) to sifting through to remove hulls, wrinkled-up beans, pieces, etc. to get a more uniform output. That really goes against my tendency to avoid waste, but the difference in the cup is very noticeable. Coffees I struggled with are quite different now.

You can get used to any kind of flavour profile and not realize that profile is coming from defects. When you remove the defects, you have to adjust to a whole new flavour profile. You get to deal with more nuanced experiences.

I'm a bit surprised that the QC aspect did not appear in the many resources I read on home-roasting. The impact of a few bad beans can be substantial. As I roast at night, the extra time to sift through the beans is not much fun.

I realize I'm supposed to QC the greens before roasting, but I haven't developed enough confidence to do that yet.

I am thinking about what to do with the beans I cull. I'm happy they won't disrupt the flavour experience of the main cups... but I figure they are worth playing with... perhaps milk drinks.