Help with hopping an AG pale ale, please

Brewed 20 gallons from a 5 gallon recipe on Saturday. Unfortunately, my math skills failed me at a critical time and instead of quadrupling the flavor / aroma hops I only doubled it. Now I fear the brew will be less than the deliciousness I have come to expect.
I am wondering if it is possible to stew some hops in boiling water to make up for my mistake or would this dilute the beer and make the matter worse. Also, I am concerned that hop utililization in water would be poor.
Does anyone have any recommendations for fixing what will undoubtedly be an underhopped pale ale that is already in the primary?
~ will dry hopping help with other than aroma?
~ can I put some apricot extract in to appease SWMBO?
Thanks.

cha ngo said:

I am wondering if it is possible to stew some hops in boiling water to make up for my mistake or would this dilute the beer and make the matter worse.

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I think you can do it. Just use a lot of hops and a little water and a very short boil (see my next comment).

cha ngo said:

Also, I am concerned that hop utililization in water would be poor.

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Hop utilization in water is not poor, it's excellent. Gravity affects utilization.... the higher the gravity, the worse the utilization. Water (1.000) will suck a lot of AA from the hops... much more than any wort you will ever boil.

cha ngo said:

Does anyone have any recommendations for fixing what will undoubtedly be an underhopped pale ale that is already in the primary?

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see above and below.

cha ngo said:

~ will dry hopping help with other than aroma?

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According to everything that I have read the dry hops will only improve aroma. I only dry hop my IPA, which has a buttload of hops in it anyway, so I really can speak from experience. I would have NO WAY of knowing if the dry hops added any flavor in addition to aroma. I'd go with the literature here and assume dry hopping will only fix yoru aroma issue.

cha ngo said:

~ can I put some apricot extract in to appease SWMBO?

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It's your beer, do what you want. If adding flavorings like that, I suggest adding them at bottling time so that you can add it to taste. Plus, if YOU don't want 10 gallons of apricot IPA, bottle most of it normally, then add the apricot to the last couple of gallons and bottle for SWMBO.

one last thing: relax, don't worry, and have a homebrew.

hoep this was useful... brew on!:rockin:

-walker

Most helpful, thank you.
I will go with the flavor hop stew option.
As for having a homebrew, I am enjoying a pale ale now - however it IS in a pilsner glass [worry] [/worry]

If you boil the balance of the hops (bittering and flavor) for 20 minutes (in a couple quarts of water), you will get both the bittering and the flavor. As w-s points out dry hop for aroma.

I agree with my esteemed colleagues. However...if it were me, I would just go with it. I don't think it will be bad by any stretch (probably downright tasty) and you'll have a datapoint to add to your noggin - what happens when the aroma hops are cut in half.

Baron von BeeGee said:

I agree with my esteemed colleagues. However...if it were me, I would just go with it. I don't think it will be bad by any stretch (probably downright tasty) and you'll have a datapoint to add to your noggin - what happens when the aroma hops are cut in half.

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Every Brew Has a Golden Lining?

Baron von BeeGee said:

I agree with my esteemed colleagues. However...if it were me, I would just go with it. I don't think it will be bad by any stretch (probably downright tasty) and you'll have a datapoint to add to your noggin - what happens when the aroma hops are cut in half.

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Follow up:
The Baron is correct. I went with it and it is tasty (I think the Northern brewers I used for bittering helped and the half addition of the Simcoes are really OK). Thank you all.

Every Brew has Goldings lining...

I love it when a beer comes together.

Some say that you can extract harsh flavours from hops if you boil them in water because the ph is too high (normally you're boiling them in wort which is acidic). I would be wary, or at least taste the hop tea before you add it.