Hop Tea anyone?

I have not made hop tea to add to beer but have used it for a resident insomniac. A handful in a cup of boiled water steeped for 5 minutes and he had a very strong, hoppy infusion. He did sleep well.

I tried boiling 1.5 oz hops in 2.5qts. of water for 45 minutes. Then I strained out the cones and continued boiling until the volume of the tea was about 1 pint(the cones absorbed quite a bit of water too) I added this to the fermentor, let sit for 3 days and it tastes great. Little dry hop and it'll be ready to rock.

Don't ask how I arrived at these numbers, it was all just an educated(read lucky) guess.

ted hoffman wrote:

OK it appears that I overestimated the bittering capability of the fresh hops and I now have a sweet, rather than pale, ale. Has any one ever just boiled hops in water to make a 'tea' and then added that to the fermenting beer?

One technique that's worked well for me is to take whatever quantity of preferred hops and use them in a French press (worth their weight in gold). Simply bring some malt extract to a boil, then add it to your French press. Depending on whether you add the hops right away, or later as the wort cools, you'll have a trade off between hop bitterness and hop aroma. Just let them steep for about 15 minutes and add the hopped wort to your keg and the yeast will consume any remaining sugars, leaving the hoppy goodness. If you feel it's necessary, just add a little dry yeast to the solution before you introduce it to your keg. I've found this to be preferable to dry hopping or keg hopping, if only because it's easier and you don't run the risk of any grassiness in your beer.

OK it appears that I overestimated the bittering capability of the fresh hops and I now have a sweet, rather than pale, ale. Has any one ever just boiled hops in water to make a 'tea' and then added that to the fermenting beer?