I've been using beersmith for my last two brews and although it gives me a range of bitterness for a particular style it doesn't help distinguish the amount of hops used for bittering and flavour as both contribute towards bitterness. My question is: how can I determine how much hops to use between bitterness and flavour to achieve the right profile for the style I'm going for? Just a case of trial and error?
Thanks.
I normally look online at other people's recipes for beers of the same style. Or look up clone recipes and use them as a ballpark.
Personally, the more flavour I want, the more I load towards late additions to give the flavour and aroma. I don't think you can ever have too much of the hop flavour coming through. Usually use a ratio of 1:2:3 of bittering, flavour, aroma hops, using first wort hopping if I want a particularly smooth bitterness.