I currently have an APA on tap that is primarily hopped with Azacca and El Dorado. I definitely missed on this one. It is a fruit bomb, lacking a supporting bitterness, and is very sweet for finishing at 1.011.
I have heard that El Dorado can provide a candy like sweetness. Has anyone experienced to level that they perceive as negative? It tastes much sweeter than my previous APA which had a similar grain bill but had more munich and crystal malt in it so this version should be less malty and sweet…
One of our local breweries here makes an all El Dorado IPA that I will drink occasionally, but I don’t particularly care for it, for precisely the reason you mention.
It lacks the bitterness to counterbalance the excessive watermelon jolly rancher like sweetness that comes from that hop. I don’t like it.
If it were me, i’d use something sharp in the bittering like chinook or apollo, or maybe even columbus to balance that out. But that’s just me, if i was forced to use El Dorado.
+1. It definitely has a watermelon jolly rancher thing to me, too, which is why I like to balance it with something piney/dank like Columbus or Chinook. Also, whatever amount of crystal you use seems to get amplified in sweetness by El Dorado type hops. I just brewed an IPA with Equinox, an awesome but fruity new hop and made sure to balance it with Columbus and just used 6 oz of C40.
FWIW, I used Simcoe at FWH and Magnum 60 min for bittering. I think it was over 30 IBUs between the two. I did use 12 oz of crystal malt.
I have been brewing an apa with different hops every time to find out what I like best. I have found that I definitely don’t love the newer super fruity hops by themselves and need something with some pine and citrus. It is going to take a while to get the hop profile I want but I am going to go back to the old reliables; cascade, centennial, amarillo, etc.
well, as you know the magnum is smooth and not very assertive.
the FWH, well, i’m not going to get into that whole mess, but let’s just say that whatever bittering you get from that, is going to be smoother and more muted.
if that’s all that was accompanying hop additions, that doesn’t surprise me. one thing to remember is the oil content of the hops - El Dorado is pretty high - very similar range to what Citra has in fact. so even with other hops in the fray, it can be dominant, especially if predominantly used late boil.
Thanks. To be honest, I don’t pay much attention to oil content which is an obvious problem. The same beer that had jarrylo and zythos in place of el dorado and azacca had a good amount of bitterness which is why I was a bit thrown off. I incorrectly thought I had the right amount of bittering for this ‘beer’ based on my last attempt.
The last beer I made was an attempt at Stone Delicious IPA, which they said was hopped with Eldorado and Lemon Drop. I find it surprisingly sweet in spite of a low finishing gravity (split it into two with two varieties of yeast) and almost no crystal malt. It’s nice, but more of an APA than I intended.
Yeah, I did a single hop APA to taste-test El Dorado, and I share much of the same sentiment as everyone here. It’s rather sweet with a candy-like character to it. It wasn’t bad, but I haven’t had a desire to brew with it again after that experience. It would probably be nice in something like a watermelon wheat, or even a witbier. This way you could ferment pretty dry and add back the impression of sweetness with some late El Dorado.
I did something similar, but I reduced the OG to keep the ABV in the 5-6% range. I bittered with some Galaxy and used some Lemon Drop for a flavor addition, then Lemon Drop and Eldorado in the whirlpool and dry hop. I really liked the result; I thought the Eldorado worked well off the Lemon Drop. But, then again, I’m not a fan of melt-your-teeth bitterness, I’m more into a pleasant balance.
FWIW, having used both Lemon Drop and El Dorado, I wouldn’t use them 1:1 - El Dorado would dominate. I think Lemon Drop 1.5 : 1 (or a little higher) could be pretty nice. I do really like the Stone Delicious, so I may give that a shot soon.
Much like cooking, you need to know what each ingredient is bringing to the recipe. I love El Dorado because it brings that Starburst Candy sweetness to help balance the citrus of Amarillo and Centennial, and the spicy/dankness of Simcoe or Mosaic in my IPA. The result? I have a bright, crisp, and aromatic IPA. I use it as a 1:4 addition in the boil and in dry hopping, with the three other hops mentioned.
I believe someone maybe Hoosier warned me beforehand about using a 1:1 with El Dorado and other hops. It’s hard to know how much of an ingredient to use when you have never used that ingredient before…
As I draw nearer to finding a solid APA that I want around a lot, my next attempt will be cascade, amarillo, and a little bit of simcoe or citra I think. After all this time, I am coming back around to appreciating what cascade brings to the table the most…
Hmmm, I just brewed with El Dorado for the first time Friday. Used the Zombie Dust clone grain bill, bittered with 2 oz Magnum, used 2 oz each of El Dorado and Pacific Jade late in the boil, and was going to dry hop with 2 more oz of each. Hopefully the Jade will compliment Dorado well??