Author: Jason Cipriani

Developed in 2008 by CLS Farms of the beautiful Moxee Valley of Washington State, El Dorado was released to the public in 2010 and quickly drew fanfare for its ability to impart beers with pungent notes of tropical fruit with hints of watermelon and stone fruit. It also packs a bittering punch with its high alpha acid content, making El Dorado an appealing dual-purpose variety for brewers of modern hop forward beers.

Alpha: 13 – 17%

Beta: 7 – 8%

Cohumulone: 28 – 33% of alpha acids

Total Oil: 2.5 – 3.3 mL/100g

Myrcene: 55 – 60%

Humulene: 10 – 15%

Caryophyllene: 6 – 8%

Farnesene: 0.1%

Linalool: unknown

Geraniol: unknown

ß-Pinene: unknown

Parentage: ???

El Dorado is a hop I hadn’t used in my own brewing, but I’ve had plenty of commercial beers made with it including a particularly delicious IPA from Florence Brewing hopped entirely with this novel variety. With as much as I enjoyed this and other similarly hopped craft examples, I was excited to see what blind tasters would think of beer I made using only El Dorado!



| MAKING THE BEER |

The recipe for this beer was designed specifically for The Hop Chronicles with an easy drinking grist and copious amounts of El Dorado hops.

El Dorado Pale Ale

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.5 gal 60 min 42.1 IBUs 3.5 SRM 1.050 1.012 4.9 % Actuals 1.05 1.008 5.5 % Fermentables Name Amount % Pale Malt, 2-Row (Rahr) 10 lbs 90.91 Vienna Malt (Briess) 1 lbs 9.09 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % El Dorado 10 g 60 min Boil Pellet 14.4 El Dorado 20 g 15 min Boil Pellet 14.4 El Dorado 60 g 2 min Boil Pellet 14.4 El Dorado 80 g 3 days Dry Hop Pellet 14.4 Yeast Name Lab Attenuation Temperature Flagship (A07) Imperial Yeast 75% 60°F - 72°F Notes Water Profile: Yellow Bitter in Bru’n Water Spreadsheet Download Download this recipe's BeerXML file

The night prior to brewing, I collected my brewing water then weighed out and crushed my grains.

Having set my Grainfather to turn on while I was still asleep, I awoke to perfectly heated to strike water and immediately mashed in to hit my target mash temperature.

A pH reading about 15 minutes into the mash confirmed my water chemistry adjustments were adequate.

Following the 60 minute saccharification rest, I removed the grains and proceeded to sparge with the recommended volume of water.

The wort was boiled for 60 minutes with El Dorado hops added per the recipe.

With the boil complete, I ran the wort through my CFC directly into a sanitized fermentation vessel.

I took a hydrometer measurement at this point showing a respectable OG for a Pale Ale.

After placing the Brew Bucket in my chamber set to my desired fermentation temperature of 66°F/19°C, I collected some remnant wort in a flask and pitched a pack of Imperial Yeast A01 Flagship for a vitality starter. When I returned to pitch the yeast 4 hours later, I was pleased to see it was already showing signs of activity.

I checked on the beer first thing the next morning and noticed airlock activity indicating fermentation had begun. When airlock activity was slowing down 4 days later, I raised the fermentation chamber temperature to 72˚F/23˚C to encourage complete attenuation. I took a hydrometer measurement 3 days later showing FG had been reached.

At this point, I weighed out and added the dry hop charge.

After 5 days on the dry hops, I proceeded with cold crashing, fining with gelatin, and kegging the beer.

The filled keg was placed in my keezer and the beer was burst carbonated overnight before I reduced the gas to serving pressure. After a few more days of conditioning, it was clear, carbonated, and ready to serve.

| METHOD |

Participants were instructed to focus only on the aromatic qualities of the beer before evaluating the flavor. For each aroma and flavor descriptor, tasters were asked to write-in the perceived strength of that particular characteristic on a 0-9 scale where a rating of 0 meant they did not perceive the character at all and a rating of 9 meant the character was extremely strong. Once the data was collected, the average rating of each aroma and flavor descriptor was compiled and analyzed.

| RESULTS |

A total of 24 people participated in the evaluation of this beer, all blind to the hop variety used until after they completed the survey. The average aroma and flavor ratings for each descriptor were plotted on a radar graph.

Average Ratings of Aroma and Flavor Perceptions

The 3 characteristics endorsed as being most prominent by participants:

Aroma Flavor Tropical Fruit Citrus Citrus Tropical Fruit Floral Floral

The 3 characteristics endorsed as being least prominent by participants:

Aroma Flavor Onion/Garlic Onion/Garlic Dank/Catty Grassy Grassy Dank/Catty & Earthy/Woody (tie)

Participants were then asked to rate the pungency of the overall hop character.

Next, they were instructed to identify beer styles they thought the hop would work well in.

Finally, tasters were asked to rate how much they enjoyed the hop character on a 1 to 10 scale.

My Impressions: Based on my experience with commercial beers hopped with El Dorado, I expected my single hopped Pale Ale to scream citrus and tropical fruit. Those characteristics were certainly present, though I perceived a fairly strong aroma of freshly sliced watermelon with more tropical fruit coming through in the flavor. I also noticed that as the beer warmed, a pleasant note of lemon would come through. All in all, I’ve enjoyed each and every pint of this El Dorado Pale Ale.

| CONCLUSION |

With descriptors like tropical fruit, citrus, and stone fruit, it’s not surprising El Dorado hops have received so much attention since hitting the scene in 2010, as such fruity characteristics are all the rage these days. The ratings of blind participants of a Pale Ale hopped only with El Dorado definitely corroborate existing descriptors, with tropical fruit and citrus noted as the most pungent characteristics in both aroma and flavor. While this is inline with other popular hops, El Dorado didn’t seem to pack as much of a punch as varieties like Citra and Mosaic, with most tasters rating the overall pungency as mild to moderate.

That’s not to say El Dorado is a hop that can’t shine through on its own. In fact, when talking with tasters after completing the survey, the general feedback was that it made for a totally crushable Pale Ale even for those who aren’t huge fans of hoppy beers. In addition to the very pleasant aromas and flavors it imparted, using El Dorado as an early kettle addition for bittering didn’t lead to a notable sharp bitterness, in fact it was quite the opposite. I thought this was interesting considering El Dorado’s cohumulone levels are similar to hops noted for imparting a more harsh bitterness like Chinook.

After this very positive first experience brewing with El Dorado, I’m excited to see how it plays when used in varying doses for styles like Blonde Ale or American Wheat. I’ve heard that some people perceive a hard candy flavor from El Dorado, which I totally get, only instead of leaving a nasty film in my mouth, it leaves me wanting more.

El Dorado Hops are available in various package sizes in both pellets and whole cone at Yakima Valley Hops, get them while you can! If you have any thoughts on El Dorado hops, please feel free to share them in the comments section below.

Support for The Hop Chronicles comes from Yakima Valley Hops, suppliers of over 40 varieties of hops ranging from classics like Saaz and Cascade to yet-to-be-named experimental options fresh from the source. Offering great prices with reasonable shipping, consider Yakima Valley Hops for your next hop purchase.

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