re: Homebrewing Thread: Volume II

So quick question for the beersmith gurus. My last two beers have had efficiency around 85%. While brewing both of those I adjusted my mash ph with acid malt since I have high residual alkalinity in my tap water.

Tomorrow I am brewing an AiH kit for a shandy and I noticed that they assume an efficiency of 70%. Rather than follow their simple instruction sheet, I wanted to play with it in BS. Mashing 8lbs of grain and a using lb of corn sugar in the boil at my previous efficiency is going to yield an OG 12 points higher than the recipe calls for. Assuming I get 85% efficiency again, my best option for brewing the beer true to style is to increase my sparge volume/add extra water to the kettle after sparging yielding a larger batch right? I would stop adding water when I reach my pre boil OG right? This is not the same as the recipe OG because this recipe adds a pound of corn sugar to the boil in the last five minutes.

The other option is to omit the corn sugar addition altogether which would yield an 5.5 gal batch that hits the recipe OG. What do you guys think? Sorry this is my first time using a kit.