Turn of the Tides Leans on El Dorado, a Hop the Brewery Rarely Uses

Coastal Mass. Brewing has released Turn of the Tides, a Double New England IPA built around Citra, Cashmere, and El Dorado hops. The Beverly, Massachusetts brewery says El Dorado doesn't get much use in its lineup, but it's doing a lot of the work here, contributing what Coastal Mass. describes as much of the beer's bright orange character.

The result, according to the brewery, is a tropical fruit salad of a DIPA - orange, peach, and pineapple - built for unusually easy drinking given the style. Coastal Mass. is positioning it as a late-summer release, timed for what the brewery calls the "dog days" stretch before the season turns.

Thinking about the hops and flavor profile

El Dorado is a slightly less common choice next to workhorses like Citra and Mosaic, and it tends to bring a more tropical, almost candied fruit character - watermelon, stone fruit, pear - alongside the orange note Coastal Mass. is calling out here. Pairing it with Citra, which leans citrus and slightly resinous, and Cashmere, a hop known for delivering melon and lime without much bitterness, gives the beer three hops working across overlapping but distinct parts of the tropical-fruit spectrum rather than three hops all chasing the same note. That kind of layering is a reasonable way to land on the "fruit salad" description the brewery is using rather than a single dominant fruit flavor. Given that Coastal Mass. frames El Dorado as unusual for its lineup, Turn of the Tides reads as a deliberate one-off experiment rather than a tweak on a house recipe.

Turn of the Tides is available now; check the brewery's current pours list for where to find it.