Anyone Made Hop Tea?

[Guest guest]

I was drinking a nice beer and thinking about hops and barley. Actually, I am

still drinking the beer as I type. Anyway, I decided to look up hops on

Wikipedia (fantastic resouce). I just skimmed the article but was very

interested to read about the medicinal uses of hop. Check it out:

" Hop has a mild sedative effect. Dried female buds are known to have high

content of methylbutenol, which has a calming effect on central nervous system.

Possible uses are for insomnia, tensions and anxiety. If one has trouble getting

sleep, hop tea before going to bed may help. Hops' antibacterial qualities

stimulate gastric juice production. Hops' medically active ingredients are

humulene and lupulene. "

Also interesting that " hop acids have a mild antibiotic effect against

Gram-positive bacteria which favors the exclusive activity of brewing yeast in

the fermentation of beer. " And that they are technically bines [sic], not vines!

That's a new term for me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hops

So has anyone here experimented with hops? Just curious.

BTW I am making my first-ever batch of kvass right now, and will soon make stock

with beef soup bones, a leftover goose carcass from Christmas, and the head of a

bird in my freezer (it's a duck head I think).

- Tom

{Madison, Wisconsin}