Recipe Critique Needed - Cream Ale

Hi,
I bought an all-grain kit from Northern Brewer. I punched the original ingredients into my brewing software and the SRM's were high, the IBU's, and the O.G. too low (for a 5 gallon batch). I am thinking of doing a 6 gallon batch and trying to tidy the recipe up a little. I listened to Jamil's podcast and he suggested flaked corn and table sugar. The color is off, but unfortunately it was pretty off directly from Northern Brewer. I'll be punching any recipe kits I buy into my software from now on.

Any feedback would be appreciated.
(The ingredients in bold came in a big mixed bag from NB - so I can't subtract from them).


Category: 6 - Light Hybrid Beer
Subcategory: A - Cream Ale

Kettle Volume: 7.0 gal (SG: 1.039)
Boil Duration: 1.5 hrs
Evaporation: 0.75 gal
Volume Gain/Loss: 0.0 qt
Final Volume: 6.0 gal (SG: 1.045)
Efficiency: 75.0%
Attenuation: 75.0%
Evap/Hour: 2.0 qt

Ingredients:
7 lbs Standard 2-Row
0.75 lbs Honey Malt
0.25 lbs Belgian Biscuit
0.5 lbs Corn Flaked (Maize)
1.0 lbs White Table Sugar (Sucrose)
0.5 oz Cluster (7.0%) - added during boil, boiled 60 min [NB Hop Choice]
0.5 oz Cluster (7.0%) - added during boil, boiled 10 min [Added for higher IBU's]
1.0 ea WYeast 1056 American Ale

Recipe
Original Gravity: 1.045
Terminal Gravity: 1.011
Color: 6.2 °SRM
Alcohol: 4.45%
Bitterness: 16.16

Guideline
Original Gravity: 1.042 - 1.055
Terminal Gravity:1.006 - 1.012
Color: 2.5 - 5.0
Alcohol: 4.2% - 5.6%
Bitterness: 15.0 - 20.0

Hate to bump this but I'd like to brew it this weekend and wanted the a-okay.

The biscuit malt and honey add some color, so there's not much you can do about it. Luckily, they're delicious. I think the recipe, while maybe not a true traditional cream ale, looks like a mighty tasty brew that will still be light and quaffable (the table sugar will help lighten the body).

Any thoughts on the high-alpha clusters? Does my hopping schedule look okay? Would a different hop be better?

I think Cluster will be fine- it's used as an aroma hop in ales fairly regularly. I just noticed the the hop schedule pcrawford suggested would more or less double your IBU's (having doubled the 60 min. addition), putting you in American Pale Ale territory rather than a Cream Ale. I think the NB recipe will make a slightly malt-oriented beer with a slight hop flavor to it. It's really a matter of your beer preferences.

The NB hop schedule is 0.5 oz for 60 minutes with no late addition (which puts it a bit out of style). I put the late addition in for a bump in IBU's and some aroma. Thanks for your help. I am looking forward to trying to discern the honey malt flavor. Maybe my LHBS has a little to try. Thanks again.

The original recipe looks like it will make a light, slightly malty beer. Also looks pretty tasty. If it were me, I'd up the corn to 1lb and drop back or eliminate the table sugar. Perhaps add another half pound to a pound of 2-row to keep the OG in that 1.045 range. I also like to ferment my cream ales with Kölsch yeast just because it's more interesting, but the Cal Ale will make for a very clean beer with good attenuation.

A good comparison is YooperBrew's Corn Cream Ale.

Hope this helps,
Chad