Black cherry IPA recipe critique and advice

Looking to make a Black Cherry IPA when i get home. I apologize in advance about not having estimated og numbers or anything, kind of doing this on a notepad at work... This is what i have.

5.25 gal batch (after boil)
AG single infusion
7.5# pale 2 row
1.5# cara-pils
1.5# debittered black malt
.5# chocolate malt

1.5oz challenger 60 min
1oz cascade 30 min
1 oz challenger 15 min
1 oz cascade 5 min
.5 oz cascade dry hop 5 days

800ml test starter
Wyeast American ale

Cherry extract or puree' in secondary (not sure how much to use)

Any advice much appreciated! Especially on amount of cherry to use, don't want it to be overpowering, more of a "hint"

There's always been a lot of debate on this. I'd think that no more than half-a-cup of puree or 1oz at MOST of an extract (possibly even .5oz depending on potency...)

I'd do a trick like splitting your batch in half once racking to secondary and use different amounts in each, or puree in one, extract in the other...

I have to wonder if the cherry would get lost in the bitterness, though. I'm getting these values:

OG 1.054, FG 1.011
IBU's 72.4
Color 50.8 SRM
ABV 5.7%

I'd think you'd actually need a good amount of cherry to be able to even detect the "hint".

(I'm enjoying BeerSmith 2 btw - can you tell?)

Didn't think of splitting the batch, good idea. I have beer smith on my computer, but I dont bring it to work with me. Work in a "not computer friendly" environment. Thanks for the input!

Went ahead and ordered all the grain, hops, yeast etc. And a grain mill! Gonna be my first time crushing grains, hope I don't screw it up. I am excited to brew this, been wanting to add cherry to an IPA for a while now.:rockin:

How many cherries did you end up using?

Actually ended up using a can of cherry puree' in secondary and 2 oz of extract in the keg. Came out horrible, all you can taste is debittered black malt and hops, not a good combo. A little goes a LONG way with the black malt.