Which hop is more overpowering citra or el dorado

[erick0619]

Long story short im still tweaking an ipa and i want to figure out how much hops to use so that one hop dosnt over power the other. Im trying to create a nice blend of chinook citra and el dorado.

 

[crash568]

my experience with both I would say Citra is more overpowering than el dorado. My house IPA uses el dorado and mosaic and AU Summer and I get characteristics from all 3 but when I do batches with Citra I feel like its the only hop I ever taste regardless of blend.

 

[m00ps]

Citra seems most potent as a dry hop in my experience. I haven;t used El Dorado too much so no idea there. But if you are using Citra in your dry hop and want a nice balance of the 3, I'd back off on the Citra there

 

[bhchrist]

When are you looking at the hop additions? Late hopping? Dry hopping? I just brewed a session beer with a 50/50 blend of 2oz Citra and 2oz Chinook as a hop stand. Only other addition was my FWH Magnum bittering. Citra and Chinook in even pairing is a nice combo on their own. How much do you want to feature the tropical fruit of Citra/El D vs. balance it out with the pine and spice of Chinook? I could see a 1:1:2 mix working to the balance end of the spectrum, however I do not have much experience with El Dorado so hopefully someone else can chime in.

One thing you can try is the Bud Lite/Miller Lite hop experiment and play with different blends. Maybe even doing single hops per bottle and blending varying percentages from each bottle in tasting.

 

[giraffe]

Citra in my experience is alot more over powering than el dorado. El dorado has some unique flavors, but its not that strong, at least the batch of hops I used. Ive mixed it with sterling, and the sterling came through fine. If I use citra, it tastes like citra. My instinct would to use 1 part citra to 3 parts el dorado. But im not an IPA brewer, someone else can probably chime in to larger amounts in that context.

 

[erick0619]

When are you looking at the hop additions? Late hopping? Dry hopping? I just brewed a session beer with a 50/50 blend of 2oz Citra and 2oz Chinook as a hop stand. Only other addition was my FWH Magnum bittering. Citra and Chinook in even pairing is a nice combo on their own. How much do you want to feature the tropical fruit of Citra/El D vs. balance it out with the pine and spice of Chinook? I could see a 1:1:2 mix working to the balance end of the spectrum, however I do not have much experience with El Dorado so hopefully someone else can chime in.

One thing you can try is the Bud Lite/Miller Lite hop experiment and play with different blends. Maybe even doing single hops per bottle and blending varying percentages from each bottle in tasting.

Here is my recipe so far just so you can get an idea of where im at http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/235163/west-cost-ipa-v1

In regards to the balance of flavors or what i want featured, the only way i can explain is that i want the tropical flavors to be up front and to be able to pull apart the citra from the el dorado and then finish out with the chinook but aggressive enough to where its noticed. I hope that made sense. Sorry for the extra late response. Also i will be doing a 2.5 gallon smash ales this saturday one with el dorado and one with citra to get a good idea of what im going to get out of these hops.

 

[bhchrist]

If you are just doing a bittering addition and the rest of your hops as steep/whirlpool with dry hopping, then buying a 6 pack of Miller Lite and do the hop experiment and measure the volume of your blends. Do 3 bottles as single hop additions for blending and the other 3 as dry hop blends. It shouldn't take too long and it will give you a great idea how they will work together without having regrets on a full batch.

I look forward to reading your results. Good luck!

 

[bhchrist]

Should have read your recipe first! Personally, I would skip the 5 and 2 minute additions and add them to your whirlpool additions. Definitely moving into DIPA territory. You have me curious now about playing with El Dorado...