Burton Water Salts Composition?

I've just recently ordered Burton Salts from AHS, as I use RO water and add my own minerals/salts. The packet says "contains gypsum and papain." I know from experience that 1 tsp of pure gypsum in 5 gallons of water results in approximately 60 ppm calcium and 150 ppm sulfates.

Does anyone know how much the papain throws this off? Phrased another way, what is the proportion of papain to gypsum in these mixes? I emailed Austin Homebrew, and they said they get the stuff pre-mixed, and are unsure of the exact composition.

The problem with that blend is at the root of your question. Who knows what's in it and in what proportions? You are just never going to know what the actual numbers of the ions in your treated water are. Individual salts are readily available from homebrew suppliers and are a far better idea than those blends. As you have pointed out, with the individual salts you can know exactly what you are adding and get accurate numbers of your treated water. Those blends are probably a remnant of the old days of homebrewing before a lot of the more specific ingredients were available. I suggest you keep it for emergency use only and buy calcium sulphate, calcium chloride, calcium carbonate and magnesium sulphate as individual salts. With your RO water and these salts you will be able to match up for almost any type of beer. BTW what's up with the papain? Isn't that the enzyme from papaya that's used in meat tenderizing products?

BigEd said:

BTW what's up with the papain? Isn't that the enzyme from papaya that's used in meat tenderizing products?

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Yup, it's found in Adolph's and others. Papain breaks down certain proteins, which is why it's such an effective mean tenderizer. It's also great for preventing chill haze, as it does the same thing to undesirable proteins in beer. This is the main reason I got the gypsum/papain mix as opposed to straight gypsum.

I figure that worst possible case, these salts are 50/50 gypsum and papain (in reality, it's probably much more biased toward the gypsum, as papain is comparatively expensive). Which means that if I add about 11 grams to my brew, I'd be getting 120 ppm calcium and 300 ppm sulfates on the high end, and 60 ppm calcium and 150 ppm sulfates on the low end. Both of these figures are well within tolerance for "good" brew water, so I'm just going to go with these Burton salts, in an effort to reap the benefits of papain.

I was flirting with the idea of going back to straight gypsum, and adding a small portion of unseasoned Adolph's. Anyone have experience with this? I'm not sure if the Adolph's has preservatives or other undesirables.

Pelikan said:

Yup, it's found in Adolph's and others. Papain breaks down certain proteins, which is why it's such an effective mean tenderizer. It's also great for preventing chill haze, as it does the same thing to undesirable proteins in beer. This is the main reason I got the gypsum/papain mix as opposed to straight gypsum.

I figure that worst possible case, these salts are 50/50 gypsum and papain (in reality, it's probably much more biased toward the gypsum, as papain is comparatively expensive). Which means that if I add about 11 grams to my brew, I'd be getting 120 ppm calcium and 300 ppm sulfates on the high end, and 60 ppm calcium and 150 ppm sulfates on the low end. Both of these figures are well within tolerance for "good" brew water, so I'm just going to go with these Burton salts, in an effort to reap the benefits of papain.

I was flirting with the idea of going back to straight gypsum, and adding a small portion of unseasoned Adolph's. Anyone have experience with this? I'm not sure if the Adolph's has preservatives or other undesirables.

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There are better ways to deal with haze than papain IMO. If it works well for you let us know. Good mashing techniques, a good boil with kettle finings, some cold-conditioning and a touch of gelatin will produce clear beer that most people will think was filtered.

I understand where you're coming from. I have my techniques down fairly well, but I'd prefer to avoid gelatin for a number of reasons. Clear beer, for me, isn't such a big concern anyhow. But I figured I'd give this papain mix a go and see how I do.

EDIT: I've been going back and fourth about whether or not I want to use this stuff. After doing a lot of reading, I found this little nugget:

Beer is stored and consumed at low temperatures at which natural present polyphenols and proteins tend to bind and form haze. The specific action of papain consists in the hydrolyzation of the proteins involved. This results in a shiny bright beer, without affecting the organoleptic properties (ie: taste/aroma) of the brew.

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With that in mind, I suppose I'll use these "Burton" salts at a slightly higher rate when compared to my normal gypsum usage.

I know I'm bumping up a dead thread, but I am in the same boat as the OP and just got off the phone with LD Carlson. The customer service woman was happy to answer my question and told me their Burton Salts are composed of 82% Gypsum and 18% Papain. I asked if that was by weight or by volume and I could hear them discussing it briefly before answering that it was by weight. They didn't sound 100% sure but its good enough for me.

Hopefully that helps some others who're using this product blindly.

May be beating a dead horse, but found this on MoreBeer's online store - their Burton Salts may or may not contain papain. They don't list it as an ingredient.

Also known as brewing salts, it is a mixture of Gypsum, Potassium Chloride and Epsom Salt. 1 tsp adds 1119 ppm per 5 gallons. For Pale Ales in the Burton on Trent style. Burton salts can come in either crystal or powdered form. We ship what is available at the time your order is placed.

30g per 5 gallons will provide:
266 ppm Ca
63 ppm Mg
159 ppm Carbonate
631 ppm Sulfate

And I am told by the AHS staff that the Burton Salts blend really smells bad on its own, which would seem to indicate ingredients besides just gypsum and papain.

I don't know where you got that, but the Burton Salts from NB tell exactly what's in it: A mixture of gypsum, potassium chloride, and Epsom salts.
Gypsum: hydrated calcium sulfate
Epsom Salt: hydrated magnesium sulfate
It doesn't give proportions; when I've used it as general insurance I've just stayed well on the low side of their recommendation (1-2 tspns, I think), and even used a half dose of BWS and gypsum with no bad effects.

PS: Papain? I'm no chemist, but I did take a few chem courses - never heard of papain.
Looks like Haji has a more detailed answer than mine.

Bumping this again. I have some burton salts which says it contains gypsum/papain. Im guessing its old? I tried to mash a Timothy Taylor pale ale which is mainly golden promise and a little bit of crystal 120 or actually supposed to be 150(I think). I used R/O water and unless my ph strips are bad or something I used just a very little bit of these salts to my mash water and it was well below 5.0,I tried to bring it up with cal carbonate/sodium bicarbonate but it wouldnt seem to budge much to 5.0.

I gave up because I didnt want to add anything more to bring it up thinking my ph strips were bad or something.Ended up pretty flustered and wont probably be using the salts again,at least for mashing-maybe I should I have just add the burton salts to the boil like it says on the package?? That probably was intended for extract brewing if these salts are old.
Or intended for wine, I just found out in papaazains book that it boils itself off, but I wonder if it is bad for the mash.

hajiii said:

May be beating a dead horse, but found this on MoreBeer's online store - their Burton Salts may or may not contain papain. They don't list it as an ingredient.

Also known as brewing salts, it is a mixture of Gypsum, Potassium Chloride and Epsom Salt. 1 tsp adds 1119 ppm per 5 gallons. For Pale Ales in the Burton on Trent style. Burton salts can come in either crystal or powdered form. We ship what is available at the time your order is placed.

30g per 5 gallons will provide:
266 ppm Ca
63 ppm Mg
159 ppm Carbonate
631 ppm Sulfate

And I am told by the AHS staff that the Burton Salts blend really smells bad on its own, which would seem to indicate ingredients besides just gypsum and papain.

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regarding these information as
1ppm=1 mg/L solution

and as:
- M(Ca)=40.08 g/mol
- M(Mg)=24.3 g/mol
- M(CO3)=60.01 g/mol
- M(SO4)=96.07 g/mol
and
- M(CaSO4)= 136.12 g/mol - 172.172 g/mol (dihydrate)
- M(MgSO4)= 120.37 g/mol - 246.47 g/mol (heptahydrate)
- M(CaCO3)= 100.9 g/mol -

we can say that 1L of Burton salt solution should contain :
0.004 mol CaSO4 = 0.690g
0.0026 mol MgSO4 = 0.640g
0.0026 mol CaCO3 = 0.262g

which mean that for a 19 L / 5gal batch you should use :
12.92 g CaSO4 calcium sulphate ( gypse)
12.17 g MgSO4 Magnesium sulfate (Epsom Salt)
4.978 g CaCO3 calcium carbonate (E504) ( laxative at high concentration)

However it is stated there are Potassium Chloride in this, but no indication of K+ or Cl- ppm are indicated. If there is really some I have no idea how much, but it will only give a salty and bitter taste. It should be a typo for Calcium Chloride (CaCl2) according to http://www.brewersfriend.com/water-chemistry/ to obtain the desired amount of Ca, one should add 3.5g for 19 l.

Also no indication are given about presence of calcium carbonates but to obtain the proportions it should have some or some baking soda to adjust CO3!

Main ingredient of Burton water remains calcium sulphate ( gypse)

Finally papain is a protein extracted from papaya: papaya proteinase I
It is used to tenderize meat, it is excellent to destroy proteins.

Somewhere I read that you can find Papain (an enzyme from papaya) in health food stores. Not sure about the amount to use but that way you could use it with individual salts.