Glossary
Burtonisation
Adding sulphate salts — principally gypsum — to brewing water to approximate the high-sulphate character of Burton upon Trent, and by extension any heavy sulphate addition.
Also called burtonization, burtonising.
Burton’s water is rich in calcium sulphate from the local gypsum beds, and its pale ales became famous for a dry, emphatic bitterness that brewers elsewhere wanted to reproduce. Adding gypsum was the way to do it, and the practice took the town’s name.
What it does is real but narrower than the name suggests. Sulphate accentuates the perception of hop bitterness and drives the finish drier; it does not add bitterness, and at high levels it reads as harsh and minerally rather than as better. It also does not reproduce a Burton pale ale, which owed at least as much to its malt, its yeast and the union-set fermentation system.
Commonly misunderstood
Burtonising water is often described as the way to make a proper pale ale. It reproduces one variable of many, and overdone it produces a harsh, sulphurous beer rather than an emphatic one.
Related
- Burton-on-Trent water — The profile it imitates.
- Water treatment — The general practice.
- Burton pale ale brewing — The tradition the name comes from.
More vocabulary
Arrested fermentation · Barrel ageing · Batch sparging · Biotransformation · Blending · Bottle conditioning · Bottom fermentation · Cask conditioning · Centrifugation · Cold break
See every term on the glossary index.
Last reviewed 2026-08-16.
Evidence
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Sulphate contributes no bitterness of its own; it accentuates the perception of bitterness already present and drives a drier finish, and at high concentrations reads as harsh and minerally rather than as more bitter.
Backed by a source
Sources: Water: A Comprehensive Guide for Brewers — print; Brewing: Science and Practice — print