Pale Ale Recipe?

This is my first attempt at home made recipe and I wanted to see if anybody has any feedback. The goal is for a big pale ale slightly on the malty side but not neccisarily sweet.

I just got a huge supply of willamette hops from a farmoutside my house so I'll be using those. I also really like vienna malt but not sure how well all this would go together. Any thoughts?

3.5 gal batch size

Grain Bill
6.5lbs Pale 2-row
1 lb Cyrstal 40
1 lb Vienna
.25 Carapils (for body)

Mash at 153 for 60

Hops
.25oz Magnum at 60
1.5oz Willamette at 30
1.5oz Willameete at 15

I would use half (or even less) of the crystal. Keep it 5-7%.

+1, lower the crystal and it looks goods.

What is the issue with using too much crystal in a recipe?

It will make it thick and sweet. I recommend 5%. The yeast strain and mash temp should also be considered to get an idea of what the FG is going to be.

What if you mashed at a lower temp, say around 149-150? Would that get you more fermentable sugar?

crystal malt is already converted so you would get more fermentables from 2-row and vienna. It would also produce a dryer, lighter-bodied beer.

Mashing low will make the base malt more fermentable but not the crystal. Crystal is already converted and not very fermentable. That's why it adds sweetness to the finished beer. There is a difficult balance to a pale ale and every ingredient plays a part.

I really hate crystal 40 in pale ales. I would go with crystal 10 or crystal 20 and as noted above, don't go more than 7% of your grain bill with it.

I prefer 60L, but it's just preference. British 50-60 is my favorite. That seems to be the point where is starts to add caramel flavor and not just sugar-sweetness. 10L is just too sweet. It's nice in very small percentages but so very easy to get too much of.