Heavy Sea's Gold ale help

I'm going to brew up a blonde ale this week to be enjoyed in this texas heat. I realize blondes are boring but I figured I would try to clone Heavy Sea's Gold Ale. I thought it was a decent blonde with a little more flavor than most? I emailed them but I got no response. Here is what they list on their website:

4.5 % alc Deep gold in color with floral and spicy hop aromas. Brewed with pale, carmel, and Munich malts balanced with Cascade, Centennial and Hersbrucker hops. Well rounded, fruity and complex.

So I am thinking of going with something like this:

5.5 gallon into fermentor, 75 % eff, 60 minute boil, 6.8 gallons preboil
1.048 mashed at 150 for 60 minutes, 21.1 IBU's
US - 05

7 lbs 2 row(or special pale) 73.2%
1 lbs light munich 10.5%
1lb light crystal 10L 10.5%
.5 lbs carapils 5.2 %
1 oz acid malt (for ph control)
Of course I keep changing my mind on the amounts of crystal and munich so I was hoping someone here might be able to help.

As far as the hops go.....I need some help.

Floral and spicy aroma???

.5 oz centennial @ 60 for 15.8 IBU's
.5 cascade @10 for 4.2 IBu's
.5 hersbrucker @5 for 1 IBU

Total IBu's 21.

Does that sound like a reasonable hop placement?

I'm not too stuck on a "clone" just shooting for something similar so I might drop one of the hop flavors out and just use 2 of them. I really enjoyed the light munich flavor when I had this.

Any tips or ideas are appreciated.

I'm also thinking of cutting down the 10 minute and 5 minute hop addition to .25 oz??

Did you end up making this? How did it come out?

I did but it was a disaster. Pretty sure I extracted tannins from too high a ph and over bittered. I'm actually thinking of trying again for my next brew now that I have my system dialed in a little better.

What little I could tell from the first brew I needed more Munich, less bitterness, and more hop flavor. I'm thinking......

6 lbs 2row
3lbs Munich
.5 carpils
.5cryst 10
1 or 2 oz acid malt

12 ibus @60
7ibus at 20
.5 cascade @ flame out
.5 to 1 oz hallerateau @ flame out

Let me know if you try something. I don't even remember what this beer tasted like but sounds like a good brew to have this spring when cutting the grass.

I really loved that brew, but it was hard for me to find even when I lived near Baltimore. Now I live near New York and my hopes of encountering it again are dashed. It is perfect for spring time, you're right. For me it accompanied gardening.

I can't brew AG, so I'll be trying a partial mash recipe. It's obviously heavily based on your own recipe, since "golden ale" is a pretty generic style, and most recipes are obviously not trying to mimic this brew. Also it's only my third brew, so I don't have so much experience writing recipes.

4 lb pilsen DME
2 lb 2-row pale malt
2 lb light munich malt
0.5 lb caramel 20L
0.5 lb carapils

.75 oz New Zealand hallertau @ 60 min
.5 oz cascade @ 10 min

US-05

I'll have poor mash efficiency and poor hop utilization, so I expect my OG will be 1.042. I might add a half pound more of DME. I've seen wheat pop up in a couple recipes. I don't really know much about the character of wheat, but I might swap out a pound of pilsen for a pound of wheat DME. Seems like it'd make for an awfully complicated grain bill if I use wheat - but I don't know much about some of the malts.

Sounds reasonable. Let me know if you brew it and how it was. I'll update if I decide to give it a try again too.

Heavy Seas responded to my email! They didn't give any proportions, but they at least specified the malts and hops.

Pale
Wheat
Caramalt (not carapils)

Warrior
French Strisselspalt
Cascade and Centennial

My LHBS doesn't carry caramalt, but apparently the crystal 20L that I was planning on using is appropriate substitute. I am now planning on including wheat (in the mash and as DME) and removing the carapils and munich. Here's what I'm thinking now. I'll probably brew it in a couple weeks when my current batch is bottled up.

3 lbs pilsen DME
1 lb Bavarian wheat DME
3 lb 2-row pale malt
1 lb pale wheat malt
0.5 lb caramel 20L

1 oz cascade @ 60 min
1 oz French strisselspalt @ 10 min

US-05

I am very wary of including the warrior hops because I think I'd accidentally overdo it.

Strange? Either they changed their recipe or I'm going crazy. When I had it last year, I remember the taste of Munich and thinking "that's interesting for a blond/ gold" I even looked up the beer on their site and it listed Munich at the time. It doesn't list it anymore. Sounds good either way. I think I'll try the Munich version again.

Per the new website recip listing.

This easy-drinking session beer pours a deep golden color. It smells slightly floral and herbal, thanks to a hopback full of Cascade and Centennial hops. Gold is tasty and refreshing, with a round mouthfeel. In 2010, it took awards at both the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup.

Style: Gold Ale
ABV: 4.5%
IBUs: 17
Availability: Year-round
Hops: French Strisselspalt, Cascade & Centennial
Malts: 2-row, Wheat Malt, and Caramalt

Based on this I would bitter with whateveryou have. They probably use warrior to save money. Then I would throw cascade and centennial in the last 5 minutes. The one I had had an herbal spicy flavor too so I would use some healertau or strisalspalt at 5 min to copy that if you picked up on that flavor. Maybe even just add all or most of the flavor hops at flame out to mimic the hop back they describe.

I don't think you would need wheat dime and wheat in the mini mash. It's probably for just a little flavor and body/ head retention.
I'm no expert but I would try this for a partial mash based on their website.

4lbs light dme
1lbs 2 row
1lbs wheat
.5 crystal 20 (or 10)

.4 centennial @ 60
.5 strisslespalt @ 10
.5 cascade@ 0
.5 centennial@ 0
Hops bitterness based on 6.5 gallon boiled down to 5.

3 gallon boil would need .6 centennial at 60.

So I brewed something close to your recipe, and it's finally carbed and ready. I just cracked the first one today. What I ended up brewing (partly by mistake, partly by what was available from my LHBS) was this:

5 lb pilsen DME
2.5 lb 2-row
1 lb pale wheat
.5 lb C20

1.5 oz cascade @ 60 mins
1 oz stisselspalt @ 10 mins
.5 oz cascade @ flameout

US-05

My OG was 1.057, whereas I'd been planning on about 1.045. I'm not sure where the FG is because I didn't write it down, though I think it was around 1.016. It fermented more or less around 68-70 degrees F.

Here are my tasting notes:

Pours a bit hazy, golden orange. Thin head, quickly dissipates. Lacing is decent, but less than I expected with a pound of wheat. Bready, sweet malt nose which subsequently reveals a hint of hops. Sweet malt taste with a bit of citrus impression from carbonation and bitter hops. Very balanced, with nice bitter hops presence when drinking, but leaves mouth feeling clean with no bitter or syrupy aftertaste. More similar to my memory of the original than I would've suspected given the higher alcohol content and IBUs (my cascades were 2% higher in AA than I calculated). Full bodied, but not heavy or mouthcoating.