Burton Water Salts worthless?

[Bear419]

I ordered some Burton Salts from Brewmaster's to adjust my brew water. I was going to use it with distilled water, but after comparing what they sell with the acutal water profile from Burton, they seem pretty worthless. Am I missing something? the PPM comparison is below.

Brewmaster's Warehouse Burton salts:

adding 1 teaspoon per gallon increases the hardness of the water by 889 ppm. They contain calcium sulfate, potassium chloride and magnesium sulfate. Breakdown on the water hardness: 135ppm Ca++, 388ppm SO4--, 19ppm Mg++, 183ppm K+ and 165ppm Cl-.

Burton water profile from Palmer's How to brew:

Vital Statistics
Calcium (ppm):
352
Sulfates (ppm):
882
Magnesium (ppm):
24
Sodium (ppm):
44
Chloride (ppm):
16
BiCarbonates (ppm):
320

 

[mabrungard]

I would not go with those salts. The resulting potassium and chloride levels are higher than I prefer. You are better off adding just gypsum to create an appropriate water for a hoppy ale. You can also add a modest amount of magnesium if you want that accent on bittering (I do!). I prefer to bring the sulfate level in my pale ale water to 300 ppm.