Recipe Suggestions?

Ok, so I am working on a recipe for a beer that is close to Widmer's "Brrr". Love that stuff and I wanna try to make my own. This is the recipe that I came up with and with a taste of it as I kegged it today I can tell I gotta make some changes. It tastes good, but honestly, its not really all that close. I know this cause I picked up my first 12 pack of the "winter" last night and its got more of a full bodied feel to it. Its "thicker" for lack of a better word. So what I am thinking about doing is upping my Cara-Pils to 1# and the Chocolate Malt up to .15#. My efficiency is also up from when I first brewed this recipe, I am steady at 73% now, hoping to get that up some more also. With that said, my grain bill will go down a few #, which is good. But over all, this is what I am thinking. So, main objective is to get it 'thicker' and a bit sweeter.... Thoughts? Suggestions?? Thanks!


Ingredients
Brewhouse Efficiency: 60%

Amount Item Type % or IBU
15.50 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 81.15 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 5.24 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 5.24 %
0.75 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.93 %
0.75 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 3.93 %
0.10 lb Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) Grain 0.52 %

0.50 oz Columbus (Tomahawk) [14.00 %] (55 min) Hops 18.1 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (40 min) Hops 6.4 IBU
0.50 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (40 min) Hops 15.1 IBU
1.00 oz Simcoe [13.00 %] (5 min) Hops 6.9 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (5 min) Hops 2.9 IBU



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.075 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.019 SG
Bitterness: 40.9 IBU
Est Color: 14.7

Why not just mash a few degrees higher? What size batch is this? Also, I would add some more munich before I increased the carapils, you already have a lot of crystal malt.

Yeah you should be able to up the mouthfeel by turning up your mash temp a few degrees. What did you mash at before?

It's an 11 gallon batch... Originally I mashed at 154* for 60 mins. This time I think I will go at 158* for 45mins. Should work, yeah?

Here are the specs from Widmer's webpage for the beer you want:
bitterness 50 IBU
alcohol by volume 7.2%
original gravity 17° PLATO (1.0170)
malts PALE, CARAMEL 10L & 80L,
MUNICH 10L, CARAPILS, DARK CHOCOLATE
hops
BITTERING: ALCHEMY
AROMA: SIMCOE & CASCADE

Your recipe under estimate the required amount of base malt, only 15.5lb for 11gals of beer.
This is what I suggest:

Fermentable Malts&Sugars Lb/PPG
Briess 2-Row Brewers Malt 25/35
Briess Crystal 10L 2/31
Briess Crystal 80L 2/31
Briess Carapils Malt 1/31
Briess Munich 10 Malt 1/34
Chocolate Malt 0.2/30

Mashing temperature (F) 150

Hops Alpha% range Alpha% Oz Time(min)
Columbus -USA 14.0 - 16.0 15.0 2 60
Cascade -USA 4.5 - 7.0 5.5 2 5
Simcoe -Yakima 12.0 - 14.0 13.0 2 5

Mash Vol (gal) 11
Expected Efficiency% 73%
Expected OG 1.071
Expected Attenuation% 90%
Expected FG 1.016
Color(SRM) 15
IBU 49
ABV% 7.1
Safale S-04-Whitbread Ale
Fermentation temp: 65F

I like to mash at lower temp and add carapills. You could mash at higher temp and not add the carapills, but you would need more base malt to reach same ABV%. Make sense?
Someone please check my numbers.

Yeah, I copied the wrong sheet for this... good catch! So that original was for a 5.5 gallon batch. I doubled it, but jacked my eff% to 73%, so I lowered my base malt. I went with 26#'s 2row... so fairly close to what you have there. I brewed it yesterday... other than having a few too many during the process and having a garage full of people, so I ended up going about 5 mins longer, I think it turned out good. Also forgot to take my OG, but oh well, it's gonna be a very drinkable beer no matter what... just might not be exactly what I wanted... but that wont stop me from trying again