How much dry hop for a 2.5 gallon Pale Ale?

[dsaavedra]

Doing my first all grain brew this weekend (woot! :rockin, a 2.5 gallon SMaSH I came up with.

Recipe is as follows:

6lbs pale ale malt

.5 oz cascade at 60 min
.25 oz cascade at 10 min
.25 oz cascade at flameout
for ~ 35 IBU

I bought an extra ounce to dry hop with for the last 5-7 days in primary. I'm not sure how much I should use because I've never dry hopped before. Should I use the whole ounce?

 

[LesIsMore]

The last time I dry hopped 2.5 gallons of a pale ale, I used .5 ounce Simcoe and .5 ounce Amarillo. I bottled it in the end of January and it still has a nice aroma.

 

[tooldudetool]

I typically use 1.5-2 oz dry hops for a 5 gallon batch of pale ale.. so I would say .75 oz to 1 oz for 2.5 gallons. It all depends on how hoppy you like it, if it were me I'd use the whole ounce, especially considering its a SMASH and you are trying to get the specific "Cascade" hop character

 

[dsaavedra]

Yeah I am leaning toward just tossing in the whole ounce. Doesn't seem like it would be worth it to hang on to .25 oz. Dry hopping mainly contributes to aroma anyway right? This will be good in learning the characteristics of Cascade.

On a side note, what do you all think of my recipe? Think it will be good? I already bought all the ingredients so it's too late to change anything but the hop schedule :cross:. But this schedule should get me around 35 IBU's which is right where I wanted it.

 

[zardozap]

On a side note, what do you all think of my recipe? Think it will be good? I already bought all the ingredients so it's too late to change anything but the hop schedule :cross:. But this schedule should get me around 35 IBU's which is right where I wanted it.

For a Pale Ale SMaSH, I think that's just fine. The hops are the feature here, 1/2 oz for bittering 2.5 gallons seems just right. The late addition hops seem spot on too. As for the dry hopping, I would just use the full 1oz for the aroma and some flavor. I don't dry hop for more than 5 days, as sometimes I've gotten undesired flavors from leaving the hops too long. I mostly double dry hop. Do half for 5 days, remove and replace with fresh hops for another 5. But since this is only 2.5 gal, 5 to 7 days should be perfectly OK for dry hopping. Good luck!

 

[dsaavedra]

For a Pale Ale SMaSH, I think that's just fine. The hops are the feature here, 1/2 oz for bittering 2.5 gallons seems just right. The late addition hops seem spot on too. As for the dry hopping, I would just use the full 1oz for the aroma and some flavor. I don't dry hop for more than 5 days, as sometimes I've gotten undesired flavors from leaving the hops too long. I mostly double dry hop. Do half for 5 days, remove and replace with fresh hops for another 5. But since this is only 2.5 gal, 5 to 7 days should be perfectly OK for dry hopping. Good luck!

Thanks! That makes me feel much more confident in my first recpie build/all grain brew, even though it is really simple. I'm really nervous/excited to brew this tomorrow! I hope it all goes well. I'm sure it will.