How much Crystal is too much?

Planning on brewing an American Amber Ale recipe soon... it calls for 6.6. lbs Pale LME, 2 lbs Crystal 60, and a few hop additions that I don't remember exactly... I think it works out to an IBU of 40-50.

That's a little over 23% of the malt sugar coming from the Crystal 60. Do you think that will be too much, leading to maybe an excessive sweetness for this type of beer? I know not all American Ambers are created equal, but I keep thinking I heard of a % that you shouldn't exceed when adding Crystal...

I don't usually go over 10-15% crystal. I'm not sure if that's the rule to go by, but it's my personal preference.

The Crystal/Caramel Wiki lists 20% as a max per batch.

While I personally have no experience, I have read posts from more experienced brewers that 2# crystal in a 5G batch is too much.

Crystal 80L will work better in an Amber and a pound should be plenty. I've got a couple porter recipes that use 1.5 lbs total.

As far as percentages go, C60L is about 18 points vs ~36 for LME, so in your recipe the crystal is contributing more like 13%, not 23%.

Too much crystal, or anything, depends on your personal preference. Some like more. Some like less. Doesn't matter if it's crystal, hops, vanilla, chocolate, smoke, etc.... Personally I would use 1 lb. or less. The style recommends "usually shows a moderate caramel character." 2 lbs. of C60 IMO is more than moderate.

From our wiki: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/American_Amber_Ale

I like a big hoppy amber, but there is a definite caramel malt undertone to it. What I have started doing is mixing the crystal malts a bit- so I'd do maybe .5 pound of 40L, and .5 pound of 80L to give it a deeper complexity.

I am drinking an American Amber now. I put 2 lbs of crystal in it, 1# 10L and 1# 90L. Turned out great. I was told this was too much too, but I really enjoy it .. not too sweet, but I also used the 10L which is more along the line of caraPils, so it won't add too much sweetness.

I would say that for an all grain brew, two pounds is quite a lot. For a steep, I don't think it will be a problem. I like just a touch of american chocolate malt in my american amber ale....food for thought.

I made a highly hopped american IPA that had 2 lbs of crystal 40 and it turned out great. It had quite a bit of hops (6 ounces) and the crystal helped add some malt sweetness to balance out the hops.

My third last batch, an amber ale, had 1/2 lb honey malt, 1/2 crystal 120, and 1 lb crystal 60 ( and 1/2 lb honey at flameout) Tastes fanfockingtastic flat. In a couple of weeks it will be an award wining ale, a month after that it will rule the world and after the apocalypse I'll brew it and become mayor of my small survivor village and be protected form the mutant zombies and aliens by my entourage of amber ale loving compatriots who love me for my amber ale making abilities and in particular the 2 lbs of seeped grains in my extract award wining ale.

In other words I wouldn't worry man, just brew it and see.

FWIW and YMMV and WTF,
Steve da sleeve