Welcome.
hfe (or beta) is not a constant, as you have seen. Normally you try to make designs insensitive to hfe for that reason.
While components are not available in every value, you have a pretty big choice. If the 1, 1.2, 1.5, 1.8 ... range (E12) isn't good enough then E24 has twice as many values. If that isn't good enough then there is E48, E96 or E192. The tighter the tolerance the more it will cost though.
I am not sure of good online tutorials. I am sure there will be some - hopefully someone else will help.
Keith