Adding Homemade Hop "reduction" to secondary?

OK, so I did a quick search and didn't come up with anything, but maybe I'm not asking the right questions.

So I did an IPA that turned out fantastic, but when bottling, I drew off a couple of bombers separate from the rest of the batch and did a little experiment...

I took an ounce of glacier hops that I had leftover and boiled them in a cup or two of water on the stove for about 30 minutes.... allowed to cool, then added a little of the "hop tea" to the bombers to top them off then closed them up. The idea was to add some additional bitterness.... although, Glacier is a low alpha hop, and the boil was only 30 minutes I figured it would be a good starting point to begin to dial it in.

On comparison a few weeks later, these experimental bombers actually tasted thinner than the others I'd bottled and didn't really exhibit any GOOD extra bitterness. Just a little subtle "something" in the mouth... not unlike the effect after eating a mint. But really subtle.

I assume the thinness was from the additional water... I basically just watered down the beer. I've not tried it again since, but I am just curious if anyone else has experimented with this... or sees a problem, or even a better way of adding bitterness after the boil and fermentation has taken place?

Edit: I am sure I'll get responses like: "well just add them at the boil, why bother doing it later?" So to nip that in the bud: this was an experiment just to see what was possible. And to see if when trying a new home-spun recipe, one could massage the result a little and improve the recipe accordingly next time around.

First of all, I applaud your willingness to experiment, and share the results with us. Thank you!

Second, there is a member here who regularly uses a French Press coffee maker to make and add hop tea post-boil. Hopefully he'll show up and give us some benefit of his experience.

Third, haven't tried it myself.

Thanks! Part of what I love about brewing is the experimentation (read:crapshoot) hand in hand with attempts at predictability.

French press.... sounds interesting. I should like to hear more.

What about boiling the hops in a simple wort solution rather than just water.

This could be the thread fraizer is talking about...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/big-hop-flavor-1-3-hops-55721/

Looks like an interesting method.

If you don't mind some extra particles in the bottom of the bottle (which you shouldn't be drinking anyways) you could always try dry hopping in the bottle, i.e., just put a pellet or two in each bomber. That wouldn't increase your bitterness at all I guess, but it is a possible experiment.

Naked_Eskimo said:

What about boiling the hops in a simple wort solution rather than just water.

Click to expand...

That's a good thought. If I worked out the volumes right, I could use some light DME and make the "malt/hop tea" the primer for bottling. Dual purpose.

Daenja: I read the first few posts... seems interesting, and a good idea for replacing lost volume on the boil. I'm not sure how you'd ever calculate a conversion though.... I'll have to check out the rest of the posts and see how the idea developed. Thanks for the share!

Justibone: I'd think since it's not getting boiled, you'd just get aroma.