What should a hop tea look like?

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GhostShip

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On the face of it, probably a stupid question, but I’ve never done one before.

The kit I’m currently doing asks for the hops to be put into the FV as a hop tea. Add the hops to a cup of boiling water and leave for 10 minutes. I started in a cup, but the hops took up so much space that when I added the water, I couldn’t see how it was ever going to dissolve, so I swapped it to a bowl. I seemed to need a fair amount of water, otherwise it was just a very think ‘gloop’. It’s now like a thick soup - does this sound OK? I think it’s just the word ‘tea’ that’s making me think it should be more liquid.
 
Hi @GhostShip I bought a cafetiere and put the hops in and added cooled boiled water (80°) as this keeps them as an aroma hop opposed to a bittering hop. I then just poured the liquid into the FV after pushing the plunger down on the cafetiere keeping the hops in the vessel.
 
On the face of it, probably a stupid question, but I’ve never done one before.

The kit I’m currently doing asks for the hops to be put into the FV as a hop tea. Add the hops to a cup of boiling water and leave for 10 minutes. I started in a cup, but the hops took up so much space that when I added the water, I couldn’t see how it was ever going to dissolve, so I swapped it to a bowl. I seemed to need a fair amount of water, otherwise it was just a very think ‘gloop’. It’s now like a thick soup - does this sound OK? I think it’s just the word ‘tea’ that’s making me think it should be more liquid.
When I did hop teas the maximum I found to be viable was 10g (pellets) in 100g water, anything more and it didn't move. However I very quickly gave up on the idea of a 'tea' so I made an infusion at the above ratio then chucked the lot in and treated it as a dry hop in knowledge that there would be hop bits in the beer that I would have to deal with.
 
I do the caffetiere - I find that they still have tons of flavour after one infusion so you're better splitting the liquid into a few presses.
 
Thanks for your replies, guys. As you probably gathered, I was in the middle of doing it when I posted so didn’t have a lot of time. I have basically poured everything into the beer. It was wet, but quite thick. Most of it poured in from the bowl, but I spooned in anything that was left. At the end of the day I’ve followed the kit instructions, so it shouldn’t be far out. I always siphon through a muslin bag anyway so that will catch the bits. I’ll bear the cafetière idea in mind for the future. Thanks again.
 
I do the caffetiere - I find that they still have tons of flavour after one infusion so you're better splitting the liquid into a few presses.
So what about the dilution effect? If you end up making 2 litres of tea from 50g hops (say), do you factor that in when you make up your wort. Or don't you bother? Or are the dry weights of hops you use to make teas quite small so the tea volume is also small? So many questions :laugh8:
 
Hi @GhostShip I bought a cafetiere and put the hops in and added cooled boiled water (80°) as this keeps them as an aroma hop opposed to a bittering hop. I then just poured the liquid into the FV after pushing the plunger down on the cafetiere keeping the hops in the vessel.

Why didn't I think of that - Occam's Razor again! If there was a Kudos button I'd be hitting it now :)
 

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