First APA Recipe, any advice?

I've been brewing for about a year and am absolutely hooked on this hobby! So far I have only done extract kits from Northern Brewer and Midwest Supply so this will be my first original recipe. I'm going for a medium-sweet malt profile with strong bitterness and floral/citrus notes on the finish. Thanks for looking and I'd love to hear any suggestions to improve

Style: American Pale Ale
Batch size: 5 gallons
Boil size: 4 gallons for 60 minutes
OG 1.060
FG 1.014 (expected)
ABV 6.0%
Bitternes 70.6 IBU

Malt: 6 pounds Gold LME
Malt: 1 pound Extra Light DME at 15 minutes left in boil
Specialty Grain: 1 pound Caramel/Crystal Malt -60L
Specialty Grain: 8oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L

Hops
60 mins 1 oz Columbus pellet
20 mins 1 oz Centennial pellets
5 mins 1 oz Amarillo pellets
1 mins 1 oz Amarillo pellets

Yeast
Safale US-05 Dry Yeast

Ferment 4 weeks in primary then bottle.

Use 8 oz. C40 and 4 oz. C60. Nix the rest for this beer. It will be toooooo sweet.

Add 3 or 4 lbs. extract early, and the rest at 15 minutes left in the boil for better hop utilization. Do a full volume boil with no top off water if you can. (You should be able to by avoiding displacement of water by adding half the extract late).

Cut the Columbus to 1/2 oz. at 60. Move the 20 minute addition to 10 minutes and double it. Double up on the flameout addition also. Lastly, add a 1.5 to 2.0 oz. dryhops during the last 7 days in the primary.

bobbrews said:

Use 8 oz. C40 and 4 oz. C60. Nix the rest for this beer. It will be toooooo sweet.

Add 3 or 4 lbs. extract early, and the rest at 15 minutes left in the boil for better hop utilization. Do a full volume boil with no top off water if you can. (You should be able to by avoiding displacement of water by adding half the extract late).

Cut the Columbus to 1/2 oz. at 60. Move the 20 minute addition to 10 minutes and double it. Double up on the flameout addition also. Lastly, add a 1.5 to 2.0 oz. dryhops during the last 7 days in the primary.

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I think for a medium-sweet malt profile the OP could got up to a pound of crystal. I do agree 1.5 lbs is a little much though. I think your suggestions are good because this beer at 1.060 and 70IBUs is and IPA, not really a Pale Ale. Just my opinion though!

Thanks guys. I'll cut the Crystal malts back to what you suggested. Also going to be doubling up on the Centennial and Amarillo. Thanks for the advice!

brettwasbtd said:

I think for a medium-sweet malt profile the OP could got up to a pound of crystal. I do agree 1.5 lbs is a little much though. I think your suggestions are good because this beer at 1.060 and 70IBUs is and IPA, not really a Pale Ale. Just my opinion though!

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Yeah 12 oz. (3/4 lb.) is a nice cushion between that range.

Dry hop with a couple ounces, maybe 1oz each centennial and Amarillo???