Hey all. Been searching the site, but can't seem to find a previous conversation to answer my question. I have a false bottom in my MT that requires about 1.5 gallons of water to fill the dead space below. When I drain out my MT, I leave behind about .5 gallons of wort. My question is how should I calculate strike water and sparge water amounts?
What I've been doing in the past is just adding 1.5 gallons of water to whatever my the recipe calls for (so I don't mess with the grain/water ratio during mashing). However my efficiency seems consistently low, and I'm starting to think it could be related to this.
Should I not be adding that extra 1.5 gallons? Any advice/direction would be greatly appreciated.
Also, I have beersmith, but I'm not sure how to account for these numbers. I was just clicking on the "account for dead space" button, but I'm pretty sure that's not solving my problem ...