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 …
I would calculate dead space as what gets left behind. In your case, a half gallon. But that may not fix your efficiency. If it does, supper. If not, let’s hear all the details of your process and the guys/gals will help you out
yeah, the 1.5 gallons foundation water is still going to mix with your grain and mash water. you are probably mashing way too thin which is hurting your efficiency.
Frankly, water volume is something I still struggle with at times. Like with a new recipe for a grain bill size I’m not familiar with. For me, keeping it simple is key. I know how much dead space I have (leftovers), I know my boil off rate, grain absorption is tricky to be absolutely precise with because I think different grains absorb differently. But ive got it pretty close now and I don’t sweat the small stuff. I shoot for 6 gallons and im happy with 5.5-6.5 end results and within a brix or so of my target.
I have a no sparge mild coming up. That will be another new challenge. But I know what I want my pre boil gravity to be so I’ll just have some DME and distilled water available to tweak it if I miss.