Special Bitter Recipe help

This is my first recipe from scratch, but I've consulted various other recipes.

Goals:

• Use existing ingredients (1/2 oz Northern Brewer hops, 2-row, vienna, crystal 77L or 120L)
• test efficiency with new mill before doing bigger, more expensive recipes
• keep it simple to get a taste for the individual ingredients to help in future recipe tweaking and formulation

I got the idea from Stone's West Coast Bitter. It will be a 2 gallon batch. My current thoughts are:

(77%) 2 lbs 8 oz 2-row (used in stone recipe)
(15%) 8 oz vienna
(8%) 4 oz Crystal 77 (used in stone recipe)
1.045 OG

I need help on the mash temp. The Stone brew was sorta like a session IPA, but mashed at 158 (OG: 1.042, IBU:50). I was thinking something more like 152-4 since my bitterness won't be so high, but I'm really new to this.

26.6 IBU
.2 oz NB at 60
.1 oz NB at 30, 10, 0

US-05 (Stone Recipe)
I know this is not a British yeast, but I need to grow it up for other brews, and a 2 gallon drinkable starter seems like the way to go!

Will I be able to get a decent amount of flavor out of this little hop content? Should I switch things around a little in the hop schedule? Should I drop the Vienna and just let the crystal shine to get a better idea of its specific taste? Any help is appreciated!

I'm guessing you'll want a little more hop flavor/bitterness. Your ibu to gravity ratio is low at .58. According to the Bjcp an English bitter is between .625 and .87 roughly.

I would bump the hops to get the bitterness balance you are probably looking for.

I was hoping to use just those leftover hops from a recent brew. What if I dropped the 0 or 10 minute addition and added it to the 60? That puts me at .78 according to Brewtarget, but would I miss the aroma too much? I guess I could do a 90 minute boil and get a little more out of the bittering addition.

Any thoughts on mash temp?

Thanks!

if you're trying to go for something like Stone's bitter the aroma/flavor won't be close, but if you're going for a normal best bitter than you're OK. since you're working with a small amount of hops, I'd consider splitting it between FWH and a 5-10min add.

The stone recipe was just the inspiration for the grain bill and doing a bitter with American base malt and yeast; I'm not trying for a clone at all. As my goals state, I'm just trying to make something drinkable with the stuff I have on hand so I can get an idea of my efficiency with a new setup. I guess I'll mash at 154 or so.

For the hops I'm thinking about doing something more like this:

.3 oz 60min/FWH
.1 oz 20 min
.1 oz 5 min

That brings the ratio to .72.