IPA with Chinook and El Dorado?

[phillip_h]

I'm planning my next brew day, and I currently have a ton of Chinook and El Dorado hops in the freezer. Would these hops play nicely together?

I want to do a big double IPA, and I'm looking for suggestions on recipe ideas, since I don't have great instincts yet. I'm thinking Chinook for bittering/flavor and El Dorado for flavor/aroma/dry hops. Probably 98% 2-row and 2% Munich or crystal 40 for color.

Thanks for any advice.

 

[PADave]

I've never used El Dorado hops, but from how they are described, I'd say no. Chinook has that unique piney, classic C hop flavor, and El Dorado seems to be more the newer fruity hops. Why not do two brews, one with just Chinook, and another just with El Dorado?

 

[Chris-Naz]

I vote GO! Might want to consider your ratio and what you want in the product - I’ve had issues with too much Chinook in IPAs (6-8oz in 5 gal) and I ended up with grapefruit-laced pine sol... 4oz Chinook, then hit it hard with el dorado could be money.

 

[thehaze]

El Dorado, although a higher AA% hop, is slightly underpowered in terms of aroma and flavour, when compared with something " bolder " like, Citra, Amarillo, Mosaic, Simcoe, Galaxy, etc. So you will need more of it.

But Chinook - which I love - is a pretty assertive one. Lots of grapefruit juice and grapefruit rind, pine and resin, so in order to balance it out, especially with El Dorado, I would go 30-40% Chinook and 60-70% El Dorado.

El Dorado is nice: a definite " candied " fruit quality, with some melon/tropical notes. So it's quite fruity, but I think Chinook will go well with it.

 

[ohiochris]

I brewed an IPA kit last year with el dorado hops and I added chinook hops to get a pine flavor like pinedrops beer. It came out pretty good and close to pinedrops. I liked it a lot. Its a good combination. Pine is the flavor out front with a fruity flavor in the background. Really nice in my opinion. Oh , I added a little honey as well but thats not too important I dont think. But whenever I have honey I add it , its hard to go wrong with honey even if it just boosts the alcohol content a little.