Boiling hops alone?

I am going to try to make a brew where I can only boil small amounts of water at a time (at work). I have a kettle that can boil 1 1/2 liters at once. Think I could boil my hops alone to extract the bittering qualities, and then add them to a basically no boil wort? I will be using malt extract, and my understanding is that it is already boiled. So think I can make it work... 1 1/2 liters at a time?

Dang, no replies... I am going to have to go for it regardless.

Boiling your hops in such a small amount of wort will alter the bittering properties you get out of them. Think of it as, after a time you'll reach a saturation point for the modest amount of wort you're boiling. Dilute that down to 5 gallons and you're going to get a fraction of what you intended (or, what you would have gotten had you done a full boil). I have no idea how much bittering you'd get out of 1.5L of wort diluted to 5 gallons, but I'd expect it to be different than a full or even half boil. Maybe try some prehopped extract to add as well?

I am not boiling the wort, I am only boiling hops in water.

mixedbrewer said:

I am not boiling the wort, I am only boiling hops in water.

Click to expand...

I'll admit I'm relatively new to all this but why would you not boil your wort?

Because I am using extract. It has already been boiled.... I am trying to do a no-boil type recipe but I need to hop it.

Someone jump in here if I'm wrong but I believe even no-boil kits call for a volume of water to be brought to a boil before adding the extract in. Barring that, have you considered buying hopped extract? I wouldn't consider it personally but I've not been forced to brew on such a small scale.