The Road to El Dorado®

What do you think of when you hear El Dorado? Maybe it’s the mythical South American city of gold, or perhaps a regrettable mishearing of the classic Eagles hit “Desperado.” For craft brewers El Dorado® has its own legendary significance, not as a golden city but as a hop whose meteoric rise is matched only by its exceptional tropical aromas and flavors.

The road to El Dorado® begins at CLS Farms, a fifth-generation family hop farm in Washington State. CLS is located in Moxee, a sub-growing district in the northern part of Yakima Valley with a slightly cooler climate that’s known for its outstanding aroma crops.

Courtesy of CLS Farms

CLS released El Dorado® in 2010 and BSG partnered with them to conduct sensory with brewers’ cuts during that year’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver. The hop’s complex aromas, high alpha acids and intense fruit cocktail-like flavor quickly got the attention of brewers. Subsequent crops found their way into a variety of IPA styles around the country, to accolades from the industry and public alike.

Fast forward to the present and El Dorado® is now grown by 23 growers across five states and used by thousands of breweries. According to a Brewers Association member survey on hop usage, El Dorado® was the seventh most-used variety in 2020.

With IPA still the dominant category in craft brewing, the future of El Dorado® looks golden. If you’re looking to add a knockout punch of tropical fruit, watermelon, and stone fruit to your next brew, follow the road to El Dorado®.

Learn more: the development and growing of El Dorado®

Go for the gold: LetsTalkHops@bsgcraft.com

Jam out:

El Dorado® Hops: Freedom for Your Beer from CLS Farms on Vimeo.

Courtesy of CLS Farms