American Brown Ale recipe (using Candi syrup?)

Hi,

I'm looking to make an american brown ale and I thought I would use it to test out the use of candi sugar. There are going to be a lot of things going on in this beer so its not the best way to test candi sugar but I'm thinking it sounds like it will all work together. I know everybody likes using them for belgian beers but I thought they would bring some nice flavors to this beer. In some ways this beer is a mix of american (hops), english (yeast) and belgian (candi). I'm interested to hear what you guys think and I'm looking forward to how it turns out.

I was thinking about doing an all-grain batch but don't think I'll have the time so I'm just looking to do an extract + steeping grains batch.

5 gallon batch
OG: 1.061
FG: 1.017
SRM: 20
IBU: 35 (Tinseth)
ABV: 5.9%

6# Pale LME
1# Crystal 80L
1# Candi Syrup D-45
8oz Carapils
6oz Pale Chocolate
4oz Belgian biscuit (I know I should mash this....)

1oz Cascade (60min) 7%AA
1oz Cascade (10min)
1oz Cascade (flameout)
1oz Cascade (dry hop)
1oz Centennial (dry hop)

White Labs Burton Ale (WLP023) (I have a yeast cake that I'm planning on using)

1/2 tablet Whirlfloc tablet (15min)

Berkeley, CA tap water (soft) + 1 tsp CaCl2 + 1/2 tsp CaSO4 before steeping grains. Steep grains while water is heating and hold around 150F for 15min. Bring to boil and....

Pitch cooled wort onto WLP023 yeast cake and ferment ~68F for 1 week and dry hop for a week. Bottle with 5oz corn sugar.

I'm thinking that the dominant flavors in this beer will be the toasty flavor from the pale chocolate, the nice citrusy american hop flavor and the estery english yeast flavors. The crystal and carapils should give the beer plenty of body/unfermentables even if the candi syrup is highly fermentable. I'm not sure exactly what flavors the candi syrup will produce in this beer but I'm interested to hear what you guys have to say and then eventually to try it out.

The d45 amber syrup tastes like caramel and light brown sugar. It should taste good in your beer.

Will I be able to distinguish it from something like a crystal malt? Is the flavor distinct from crystal malts? If it is then what is the difference? If it isn't then what crystal malt is it most similar to?

I am brewing this today. I am planning on using the following hops for this recipe:

Cascade 1oz 60min
Cascade 1oz 10min

Cascade 1oz hop steep at 160F for 15min
Centinnial 1oz hop steep at 160F for 15min

Cascade 1oz dry hop
Amarillo 1oz dry hop

Does this sound like a good hop plan? Too many hops? Should I shift and of the hops around?

Just wanted to say that I brewed this beer. It's pretty good. It's got a lot of dark caramel and brown sugar. The bitterness level is nice. Hops aren't quite as bright as I thought they'd be but the hops I used were a little old. The burton yeast stone fruit flavors and toasted notes are both strong and fighting each other so neither dominate.

If I was going to do it again I'd probably cut the pale chocolate in half and replace the yeast with something like US05. Definitely a good beer.