AG IPA recipe opinions please

How will this IPA recipe work out? I enjoy northwest style IPA and am going for 6-7% ABV with a medium malt profile. I really enjoy SN celebration ale and Torpedo. Having recently acquired some Citra hops, I will be using them in this recipe. I used Brewtarget to create some of my numbers and plan on brewing tomorrow. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5.50 gal
Boil Size: 6.56 gal
Boil Time: 60 min

Amount Item Type % or IBU
6.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 43 %
5.00 lb Maris Otter (2.5 SRM) Grain 43 %
1.00 lb Caramel 40L (40.0 SRM) Grain 7 %
1.00 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 7 %

1.00 oz Magnum [13.50 %] (60 min) Hops 39.9 IBU
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] (20 min) Hops 10.7 IBU
1.00 oz Citra [12.00 %] (10 min) Hops 6.4 IBU
1.00 oz Amarillo [9.50 %] (5 min) Hops 5.6 IBU

Wyeast American Ale Yeast

I like it, and I think you will be just fine with that. Citra's a cool hop that I haven't had a chance to utilize yet. Summit had a beer last year that used a lot of it and it was great. Maris Otter makes a great IPA, too. I find that Maris Otter's flavor comes out best if you don't mash low ( > 153).

I would also consider upping the boil time to 90 minutes depending on your evaporation rate. In the past I would only boil 60 minutes and I would find that my mash efficiency was lower because I wasn't using enough water. Using a bit more water in my mash and boiling longer seems to help a lot in my mash, and I usually come out in that west-coast IPA range of 1.060-1.075. Definitely a setup-specific thing, but something to think about.

For my last batch I boiled for about 90 minutes, but only because I accidentally started with too much and wanted to boil the extra liquid. The result was a good OG reading of 1.07. I could shoot for a longer boil time again, but I assume staying with hop 6 additions beginning at 60 minutes.
Is a higher mash temp of >153 required for British Maris Otter? I mash in a 10 gallon round cooler, and my mash temps usually start at 153 and end around 148.
Thanks for the input

No, there is nothing special about Maris Otter that requires that mash temp for conversion, or anything like that. I was more saying that, in my experience, it's not really worth paying extra for maris otter when i'm mashing lower than 153, because the extra flavor of the maris otter doesn't really come out. That's all, though. Not going to screw it up or anything if you mash lower.


Another thing though, if it's your first time with maris otter... for some reason it is way way stickier in the mash than other grains. It likes to form little balls that you have to crush down. I mash in a cooler too, and I always strike 2 or 3 degrees over my normal strike temp because I know that I'm going to spend a minute of extra time stirring my mash before I close the lid. I've never done 50/50 Maris Otter and something else like you are doing, but when I do 100% of base grain being maris otter, that's what I experience.