Hello tbrown4, I read that some herbs you want to steep (hearty herbs) and others you should add to the secondary (delicate flower's) That being said, and not helping much, I would think that 1 week should be long enough to get enough flavor into your brew.
I did a steeping taste test yesterday with mugwort, yarrow, sweet gale, and rosemary, I measured out the herbs to the equivalent of what would be 1oz each herb per 5 gal of brew except for the rosemary (4 pieces only) put each herb in a separate cup, brought water to rolling boil, pored water onto herbs, steeped each herb for 3 min, strained herbs out, then tasted each, then tasted ea. at 4 and 5 min, then mixed each with a other one and tasted.
What we figured out was mugwort and sweet gale are good even after 5 min, but the longer the yarrow (taste good at 3 min) was in the hot water after 3 min the more bitter/astringent it became, the rosemary was just kinda nasty (for the lack of a better word) every time we tasted it, so no rosemary in my brews.
Then I steeped mugwort, yarrow and sweet gale together for 3 min and strained into a cold glass, dropping the temp to 82 deg. and its taste was very good, at 4 and 5 min the taste stay'd the same, so we let it sit for 10 min, same taste.
What I got out of this test is, not to add my herbs to the hot wort, 1 or 2 min of heat can make a big difference in taste/bitterness on some of these herbs, I will be brewing a herb ale today, using what I have learned from this test, I will be steeping my herbs, then adding that herb tea/extract to my cooled wort.
Just thought I would share what I learned yesterday, I think the steeping method would work for a secondary addition too, I know this is not what what you were asking about, but thought it might help you/someone out on another brew.
Ill try to remember to post how this brew comes out in about 6 to 8 weeks
Cheers
