Confused about Buton Water Salts

I'm going to try a batch of an IPA using RO water and Burton Water Salts as opposed the the expensive Spring Water that I've been using. I'm confused about the proper dosage. I've seen the number .33 oz (~2 tsp) per 5 gallon batch (added to the mash) but I've also seen everything from 1 tsp to 5 tsp. Since I'm starting from RO water, what's a good amount to begin with?

What salts do you have?
I wouldn't target actual Burton water - maybe Tasty's water:
Ca-110ppm, Mg-18ppm, Na-17ppm, SO4-350ppm, Cl-50ppm.
This helps me a lot:
Brewing Water Chemistry Calculator | Brewer's Friend

944play said:

What salts do you have?
I wouldn't target actual Burton water - maybe Tasty's water:
Ca-110ppm, Mg-18ppm, Na-17ppm, SO4-350ppm, Cl-50ppm.
This helps me a lot:
Brewing Water Chemistry Calculator | Brewer's Friend

Click to expand...

I dunno exactly. It what the homebrew shops sell as "Burton Water Salts." I believe it's a mixture of potassium chloride, Epsom salts, and gypsum. I ordered it on a whim to use in some RO water. I just wondered how much I'm supposed to use, since there are no instructions included with it. I figure there must be some standard amount to use when starting from RO water.

Thanks for that link. That looks pretty useful for using individual salts.

Burton water salts are used to hit Burton on Trent water from distilled water if I understand it correctly. This will be weighted towards sulfur, probably contains mostly gypsum and chalk. Best thing to do is use the brewers friend calculator as 944play linked (which I created), and tune the salts in exactly. Less is probably more in this case with the Burton salts.

without knowing the mineral content of your RO water, and the concentrations of salts in the bag you bought, you're kinda up in the air. Hopefully you can contact the place you bought the salts from and get their input. I scanned thru a couple of different HBS and saw the same variations in quantities as you did, I sure due to different packaging.

My understanding is RO water is high in sodium, and the packages sold online are assuming you're going to use distilled water. you might want to scrape up what local water info you can, filter, and build your own profile from scratch.

DanVader said:

My understanding is RO water is high in sodium, and the packages sold online are assuming you're going to use distilled water. you might want to scrape up what local water info you can, filter, and build your own profile from scratch.

Click to expand...

RO filtration removes most of the mineral ions and other TDS.
Softened water is typically high in sodium.

They are not the same.

You can assume that your RO water has little to no minerals in it, and use it as a blank slate for building your water up to a specific profile with the various brewer salts.