Get to Know Your Favorite Hop | El Dorado®

Discover the candy-like fruit medley of El Dorado® and why brewers can’t get enough of this mythical hop.

Before it hit the scene, brewers were endlessly searching for the rich, fruity flavors and aromas of this hop varietal. It’s bursting with candy-like fruit, and it acts as a hype man that takes any other fruit flavors to the next level. It’s El Dorado®.

Like the mythical city of gold its name references, El Dorado® hops offer brewers a unique wealth. No, we’re not talking about actual gold. This variety offers endless flavor versatility and limitless beverage applications, and that’s worth far more for most brewers.

Skip Schwartz, head brewer at WeldWeks Brewing, told Ollie, “WeldWerks has made it clear for years now — we love El Dorado®. Personally, I’ve been saying that El Dorado® is one of the best hops being grown right now.”¹ 

The best part? You don’t have to venture into the unknown to brew with this remarkable hop! Read on and discover the origins, aromas, and flavors of El Dorado®.

El Dorado® Flavor & Aroma

El Dorado® is a dual-purpose hop with a treasure trove of tropical, candy-like flavors that are expressed differently depending on hop maturity at harvest time. Early maturity brings out more citrus, and middle maturity expresses fruits like watermelon and pear. CLS Farms explains, “For deeper aromas, peak maturity elicits tropical aromas of pineapple and mango, stone fruit, and candy lemon and cherry.”²

Alpha acids range between 13-17% and add a soft, well-balanced bitterness. If you’re looking for those deep tropical flavors with that hard-candy quality, however, you’ll want to add El Dorado® later in the boil and/or dry-hop with it.

With such an explosion of complex fruit, El Dorado® has no problem standing alone in a single-hop beer. Almost any style will benefit from this hop, but American Pale Ales, IPAs, Lagers, Wheats, and Cream Ales are naturally good fits. Oh, and let’s not forget Hazy IPAs, whether single, double, or triple! 

To create even more complexity, many brewers enjoy pairing this hop with other varieties like Citra®, Centennial, Mosaic®, and Cashmere. Yes, it’s brilliant on its own, but El Dorado® is one of those varieties that plays very well with other hops.

Before El Dorado®, It Was … Actually, It’s Always Been El Dorado®

Usually, a series of letters and numbers are used to refer to new varieties until they’re made publicly available. While it’s sometimes referred to as “ElDo,” this hop has pretty much always had a solid identity.

For several years, CLS Farms experimented with this variety on a single acre in Moxee, Washington. Then, in 2010, CLS Farms and Brewers Supply Group (BSG) featured samples at the Great American Beer Festival (GABF). 

While it had originally been grown for the alpha market, brewers at GABF were drawn to its unique, multifaceted aroma. The feedback was wildly positive, and CLS Farms knew this variety provided an opportunity to create new experiences for brewers. So, after GABF and some serious deliberation, the variety was dubbed El Dorado® and released commercially.

CLS Farms | El Dorado: The Tropical Hop

Shelley Desmarais, co-owner of CLS Farms, explained to Craft Beer & Brewing that this variety emphasized the “excitement of dreams” and that it focused on positive brand experiences starting from the growers and all the way to consumers. She further explained, “Through every step, we want the process to highlight the commitment to quality, consistency, and the unique attributes of El Dorado®.”³

This ethos landed particularly well during a time when consumers were becoming more interested in ingredient transparency. Brewers who fell in love with its tropical flavors during the craft beer boom helped fuel its popularity, and by 2020, it would become the 7th most used hop variety according to the Brewers Association Hop Usage Survey.

As acreage for El Dorado® increased to meet demand, CLS was able to dial in its unique flavor and aroma.

The early years of El Dorado’s® aromas leaned towards pear, melon, and citrus. As CLS Farms worked directly with brewers for feedback and adjusted harvest windows, the tropical and stone-fruit aromas became more pungent and closer to what it’s known for today.

El Dorado®: The Story of How This Tropical Hop Made It in Your Beers

Craft Beer & Brewing

El Dorado® Beyond Beer

The wide variety of flavors and aromas that are possible with this hop variety are truly astonishing. This feature makes El Dorado® incredibly versatile! Brewers can pair it with other hops, innovate with non-hop flavors, or even throw the whole playbook out the window and experiment with entirely new beverage formats.

Hop waters, for example, are one of the best ways to experiment with this hop! The candy-like quality of these flavors will stand out in an NA beverage that’s light, crisp, and takes advantage of the fruitiness of El Dorado®. 

On top of that, the growing number of hop water consumers are thirsty for innovative flavors. It would be fast and cost-effective to combine El Dorado® with unexpected fruit flavors like Kiwi or Passionfruit. The sky is the limit! We’re imagining RTD cocktails, teas, functional beverages, and MORE. 

Read to start brewing immediately? Not a problem! We have two Optimized Hop Extracts for brewers to choose from. 

Our Quantum Series starts with hops… and only hops. Using whole El Dorado® hops and pellets, we perform the highest quality extractions in the industry, so you’re JUST getting vibrant flavor and aroma without any undesirable compounds. We’re not formulating these in the lab, we’re just squeezing every last drop of flavor and aroma out of the hops for the truest version of El Dorado®. 

That also means our ELD Quantum Profile is in limited supply. Whole hops and pellets are subject to harvest variabilities, which limits the quantity and availability of Quantum extracts. So, if you love a particular Quantum extract, act fast.

Omni Hop Profiles, on the other hand, don’t have supply issues, and they never will. Things like seasonal flavor drift or industry shortages won’t impact our ability to recreate these profiles. 

While Quantum is solely derived from hops, Omni Hop Profiles are sourced from sustainable botanicals. With this as the foundation, we then layer in terpenes and other compounds to formulate, replicate, and standardize the flavor and aroma of hops. This allows us to create a true living record of specific hop samples that can be recreated indefinitely. 

Want to brew with the varietal-specific flavor and aroma of Azacca® forever? With our ELDX421 Omni Hop Profile, you can. 

If that wasn’t enough, brewers can even customize the flavor of El Dorado®. Want to pump up its natural mango or watermelon flavors? Do you want to add depth with additional dankness? Differentiate your brand with exclusive flavors and aromas customers won’t get anywhere else.

Abstrax | Brew the True Flavor and Aroma of El Dorado®

We know we’re not the only ones craving the fruity, candy-like flavors of El Dorado®! Ready to start brewing? Today, it’s easier than ever. 

Unlike traditional extracts, our Optimized Hop Extracts offer varietal-specific flavors and aromas with no alpha acids and no undesirable plant compounds that can gunk up your tank. They have a 100% utilization rate, they don’t require carriers, they offer logistical cost savings, and there’s zero “hop creep.”

Contact us today, and let’s get you brewing with the big fruity flavors and aromas of El Dorado®.

1. Albanese, G. (2024, October 21). El Dorado Hops - Brewer’s Guide. Ollie. https://getollie.com/blog/el-dorado-hops

2. El Dorado® Hops: Freedom for Your Beer. El Dorado. (n.d.). https://www.eldoradohops.com/brew

3. Craft Beer & Brewing. (2021, August 19). El Dorado®: The Story of How This Tropical Hop Made it in Your Beers. Craft Beer & Brewing. https://beerandbrewing.com/el-dorado-r-the-story-of-how-this-tropical-hop-made-it-in-your-beers/