APA - First Recipe Attempt

Hello, this is my first attempt at coming up with own recipe and was hoping I could get some constructive criticism for you all.

Here is the recipe below:

8.5 lbs 2 Row
1.0 lbs Cara-pils
1.0 Crystal 20
1.0 Crystal 60

1 oz Perle - 60 min
0.5 oz Cascade - 15 min
0.5 oz Amarillo - 15 min
0.5 oz Cascade - 5 min
0.5 oz Amarillo - 5 min

Yeast: Reused 1056 slurry

I'm wondering if I really need a 1 lb of crystal 20 and 1 lb of crystal 60. I'm looking to add some body, color, and a little "depth" to the overall taste while keeping the IBU's somewhat in control. I like my APA's hoppy but closer to balanced than out of control.

I think 3 lbs of cara/crystal malt is too much. If you want some depth i would cut them all down to 1/2 lb each and add another character malt like victory (for toasty flavor) or melanodin (for richer malt) or oats (for body). Switching to a more characterful basemalt is also a way to get more depth, something like vienna or marris otter would work well for an APA.

If you want "hoppy" another ounce of hops at flameout certainly wouldn't be overboard.

Thanks for the advice. I think I will reduce the crystal malts a bit and add some victory malt. Maybe another ounce of hops at flameout for aroma. Any suggestions besides cascade and Amarillo?

I think even if you cut down on the crystal malts and added victory/melanodin it would still be an amber, not a pale ale. I'd cut it down to .5 lb of crystal 60