Critique my Flying Dog Old Scratch clone

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jldc

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Flying Dog Old Scratch is described on the brewer's website as an Amber Lager "brewed at intermediate temperatures."
They also say that it has white wheat, munich, and Crystal 120, and is hoped with Perle and Hallertau. IBU's are 19.5 and OG is 13.5 Plato with an ABV of 5.5%.

Here is my first shot:

OG: 1.055
IBU: 20.3 (with FWH set at 20 min, it goes to 28.6 if I set it at 60 min)
SRM: 10.7

6.5 lb 2-row
2 lb Munich
2 lb White Wheat
.5 lb Crystal 120

.75 oz Perle FWH
.25 oz Hallertau 15 min
.25 oz Perle 15 min
.25 oz Hallertau 3 min
.25 oz Perle 3 min

Irish Moss

Wyeast 2112 - California Lager

Mash 60 min at 154 degrees. Boil 60 min.

21-28 days at 60 degrees, keg and carb


What do you think? Too much wheat?
 
I know this is an old post, but did you end up brewing this? If so, how did it turn out?
 
And now it's an even older post... but I'm about to work out a recipe for my first cal common, and I saw BJCP cites Old Scratch (which I love, like almost everything from Flying Dog) as commercial example number three (out of three).

Now that's pretty strange to me, because I don't see perle and hallertauer as being all that close to northern brewer. I mean they're all from the same tradition, I guess, but I think most people will agree NB has its own, bigger, woodier thing going on, and that it's central to the cal common style. So what's going on here? Is this just fodder for an anti-BJCP rant a la Jamil? Because if there are only three examples of the style in your list you probably shouldn't make #3 a big old weirdo example with wheat malt and totally different hops, should you?

I think it got lumped in because it's a hybrid amber lager (by temperature), and I suppose it doesn't have citrusy hops, so it's not a total aberration from style, but it still seems like kind of a bastard child of cal common and a generic amber lager.

Anyway, what do you all think? Should a cal common be NB all the way, or would some noble hops at the end brighten things up a little? I know to be Anchor Steam it's NB all the way, but I'm curious about everyone's preferences.
 
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