Let me tell you of my experiences with both methods. When I started brewing,I wasn't using DME yet,just Cooper's cans (LME),with their brewing sugar, &/or light DME. Then 2nd batch,wanted to add some hops,but can't boil pre-hopped LME. What to do?
I git my 1.5-2 gallons of water boiling,sacked up an ounce of hop pellets,& made a "tea" out of them for 15 minutes or so. Removed the spent hops,took it off the heat (electric stove),& mixed in the Cooper's can & other fermentables. It gave a nice hop flavor when it was finally ready to drink after fridge time. Light flavored,but to be expected from one ounce of hops in a 6G batch. But still,I could taste the subtlties of the EKG hops. Just not very pungent,more English like.
Now,I still use pre-hopped Cooper's cans,but some bittering ones only for the most part. I went to measured 3 gallon boils in my 5G BK. I wanted more mouth feel,more flavor,but not watering down the bittering too much. Still get good malt presence,you know? Now what to do? How to get more hop flavor & aroma,without boiling the prehopped LME?
I decided to start using plain DME in the boil,half a 3lb bag usually. Then do whatever hop additions I like. I can even do some small amount of extra bittering before flavor additions with the 1.5-2lbs plain DME in the 3G boil. Then add the remaining DME & all the LME at flame out,allowing it to steep covered for 10 minutes. It's still way hotter than the 162F needed for pasteurization to occure. Then of course there's always dry hopping. That partial boil with 1.5-2lbs DME works realy well to get good tasting hop levels that match many beers I've had from around the country,as well as the world.
You just have to remember that it's Americans who tend to want to over hop everything in sight. Not everyone does everywhere. It reminds me of an old Arabic saying;"Kiff is like fire,a little warms,a lot burns". Same here with hops,which are related.
