Hello, making a recipe and have some El Dorado hops that I was going to start my boil with. I’m seeing a lot of folks Dry hop and use late in the boil. I thought this was a buttering hop so now I’m confused. Some guidance here would be great!
El Dorado Hops
- Thread starter glepley
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Unless you are trying to brew exactly to a particular BJCP style the only rule for hop additions seems to be-there are no rules.
I use high AA hops for both early and late additions in any recipe that is north of 30, or so, IBU. It’s really just a matter of preference.
I use high AA hops for both early and late additions in any recipe that is north of 30, or so, IBU. It’s really just a matter of preference.
Use them where youd like , however they are technically listed as an aroma hop.
What are you brewing and what is your ibu your looking for?
That could work...but El Dorado is popular as a late hop (late boil, whirlpool, dry hop). I usually see it in the $25+/lb price range where you can often get a hop like Columbus/CTZ, Magnum, or Warrior in the $10 to $15/lb range. The description from YVH:
This bitter beauty was born and bred at CLS Farms in Moxee (a sub-region of the Yakima Valley). Bursting with juicy stone fruit and tropical notes, this dual-purpose hop has been featured in many great beers since its release in 2010. Big Alpha Acids (13-17%) make this an effective and efficient bittering hop, but can be used in late additions to maximize the fresh, fruity aroma and flavor. El Dorado is an exceptional new dual purpose hop with both high Alpha Acid and intense flavors and aromas. As a bittering hop El Dorado lends a firm but balanced bitterness. When used in later additions, El Dorado brings bright tropical fruit flavors and aromas of pear, watermelon, and stone fruit. El Dorado has become a fan favorite in hop-forward styles and has been featured in stellar beers such as Surly's Overrated IPA, Ninkasi's Dawn of the Red, and Let it Ride from Indeed Brewing.
Yep I think I screwed it up. I tasted the beer when I put it in the primary and it was bitter bitter! I have hopes it will calm down by my past experience when using the wrong hops at the wrong time ended in pouring beer in the drain or using it as an antiseptic. Ha!So here is the question.... when trying to develop a recipe from scratch how do I know in advance what is a good idea and a bad idea when to add the hops to a recipe in the boil. I use the IBU calculator but am realizing there is more to it than a final IBU if this makes sense. My recipe has this finishing at 58 IBU.
Blazinlow86
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Biggest thing I did to avoid way over bitter brews was get my chilling times sorted.went from every beer being overly bitter to excellent immediately. Typically recipes or software assume flame out means chilled immediately. If it takes you 15 mins to get your wort cooled and your not compensating for that it can make a huge difference. Especially if your adding alot of late flavor hops. Cheers
I’ve stopped flame out hops altogether. I’m now doing 60/5/whirlpool additions in my IPAs. I chill the kettle to 180 before adding whirlpool hops and after 30 min whirlpool it will have dropped to about 160. I try to get the kettle chilled to 180 fast at flameout to reduce isomerizarion of the 5 min hop addition.
How much did you add? What size batch?
IBU calculations are not that accurate and, from what I read, vary widely from one brewer's equipment and process to another. 58 IBU is starting to get into the bitter range unless you have a beer with a solid malt backbone (say a 1.065+ beer).
I would say that much of it comes from experience and notes. I have a general feeling of the bitterness I get from a 60 minute additions that produces 60 IBUs. I put a little more weight on the IBUs from 60 min additions, vs 20 min additions. Unless I am adding more than a few oz, I mostly ignore IBUs from flameout additions. I have not 100% figured out how much weight I put in the IBU calculations when adding 4 oz or more of late hop additions.
I changed the setting in BeerSmith a while back to calculate IBUs from the chilling process. It increases the calculated IBUs of not only late hop additions, but all additions. It makes the IBUs of my recipes higher, but it is hard to say if it is more or less accurate.
Kickass
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Tasting fresh wort going into the fermenter, in my experience, is an absolutely useless metric. It tells me nothing of what the final product will taste like. I’d say scrap the wort sample and it’s bias and go into future tasting of this batch with a complete open mind
Blazinlow86
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Yup I also do the same in bs3. What I meant about the late additions was that if you boil a bittering hop addition for 75mins instead of 60mins it won't make a big difference in final ibu but boiling a flavor 0 min hop addition for 15 mins most definitely does. Cheers
I used El Dorado with Cascade and did not really like the combination. To me (just my opinion) El Dorado is fruity while Cascade is Grapefruit. I just didn't like the combination.
Kickass
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Once fermentation is complete you’ll have an ok idea. Realize a bigger/more complex beer will take a little linger to settle into its final flavor profile. Additionally, unless you can draw a sample without opening up the fermenter, I’d avoid opening it just to sample.
