Brupaks burton water crystals

(That's water to the rest of us!) Beer is about 95% water, so if you want to discuss water treatment, filtering etc this is the place to do it!
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jonnyhop

Brupaks burton water crystals

Post by jonnyhop » Thu Feb 04, 2010 11:57 pm

just started crushing 1/2 a camden tablet into 23lt of tap water before mashing and got noticably better results so I bought some burton water crystals off of the interweb. However they have no instructions of how much to use. Any ideas? I am not really at the stage of knowledge I can test my water so just a rule of thumb will do

Cheers

Jonny

jonnyhop

Re: Brupaks burton water crystals

Post by jonnyhop » Sat Feb 06, 2010 11:21 am

I e-mailed brewpacks but haven’t heard back yet which is a bit disappointing. A tablespoonful?

jonnyhop

Re: Brupaks burton water crystals

Post by jonnyhop » Sat Feb 06, 2010 12:29 pm

So you wouldn't use it?

Bigveees

Re: Brupaks burton water crystals

Post by Bigveees » Tue Mar 30, 2010 7:17 pm

Are these crystals that bad? I'm doing my first all grain brew next week and have decided to do a basic correction of CaCO3 levels using CRS and was also intending to add 1/2 a campden tablet and two teaspoons of Burton crystals to the mash, on the basis that there would be more Ca than Mg sulphate in the mix!

Shall I give the Burton crystals a miss?
Andy

jonnyhop

Re: Brupaks burton water crystals

Post by jonnyhop » Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:41 pm

I wrote to brewpaks and told them I had no idea what my water profile is like ( I have since received a report from Northumbria Water that I cannot decipher) and that I treat tap water with half a camden tablet. They advised that "Half to one teaspoon per brew will be fine" So I did this with my dark lager that is currently fermenting. Very interested in other people experiences though.

Hawkmoon1704

Re: Brupaks burton water crystals

Post by Hawkmoon1704 » Fri Apr 02, 2010 5:40 pm

Do the breweries adjust their water before brewing then?

smdjoachim

Re: Brupaks burton water crystals

Post by smdjoachim » Sat Apr 03, 2010 12:00 pm

I use 1 campden tablet and 1 teaspoon of burton water crystals in the mash and 1 teaspoon in the sparge water.I have average water.i haven't checked it out ,but if you can drink it cold with no odd flavours and your kettle has no scale in it ,that's good enough water to brew with.

Hawkmoon1704

Re: Brupaks burton water crystals

Post by Hawkmoon1704 » Sat Apr 03, 2010 5:01 pm

Cripes! I thought that hard water was good for brewing tho'. Apart from all that other stuff I know I've got hard water. Never really had a bad brew and my water tastes fine from the tap.

Intothevoid
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Re: Brupaks burton water crystals

Post by Intothevoid » Sat Apr 28, 2018 8:40 pm

I know this thread is ancient but hopefully some will notice this and have theyre two cents on the subject

Has anyone tried this agent for theyre hard water with good results?

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orlando
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Re: Brupaks burton water crystals

Post by orlando » Sat Apr 28, 2018 9:29 pm

I suggest you search on here for water treatment.
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Fil
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Re: Brupaks burton water crystals

Post by Fil » Sat Apr 28, 2018 10:17 pm

I echo Orlandos comment.

adding a campden tab will remove unwanted chlorine and similar chemicals in upto 50l of brewing liquor and will probably be a positive step for any brew. but just adding a teaspoon or two of salts to any water without some consideration of its initial make up and the combination of salts added will produce unpredictable results..
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HTH1975
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Re: Brupaks burton water crystals

Post by HTH1975 » Sun Apr 29, 2018 12:25 pm

If you have no idea of your water mineral composition, you’re pissing in the wind. You may even make your beer worse.

Best twenty-odd quid you’ll spend is a Murphys water report. It will detail your mineral content and give treatments for different styles of beer. It’s a great baseline to brewing better beer. From there you can tweak to your own taste. Bear in mind that it’s quite normal to take three brews till you nail any specific recipe; making adjustments each time.

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Kev888
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Re: Brupaks burton water crystals

Post by Kev888 » Mon Apr 30, 2018 9:32 pm

The campden tablets you are already adding are fine; their main effect is just to remove chlorine (or equivalent). They may or may not be necessary but they can't remove too much chlorine (none is wanted) so they are pretty safe to add (in normal amounts) for all water types.

However, the crystals are a different matter, one size does not fit all. They add things to your water, and the level of these does matter; they can be too high, too low, or out of balance. So, unless you know what the water already has, you would be shooting in the dark in terms of how much to add (possibly making things worse in some respects). The other aspect is that they are a set blend; this blend may suit your water, or it may not, in which case other salt combinations would be better.

I suppose you could try a suck it and see approach, though results may go down as well as up. But I would strongly suggest 'at least' reading up on calcium, sulphate and chloride levels plus trying to understand enough of your supplier's water report to know (if it tells you) what levels of these to expect in your water to begin with. If it doesn't tell you, and/or you intend to do things more properly, then getting a water analysis from WallyBrew (in preference to murphys) would be a good move.
Kev

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