Christmas Red questions (brewer unreachable)

[snipper_cr]

So I wanted another brew to add to my "Christmas Collection" and wanted to branch away from the heavy spiced ales and came across this one in the Xmas ale thread. I've tried to contact the brewer on it but he appears to have gone idle

Here is what he wrote:
10lb 2-Row
4lb Munich
80z Crystal 60
4oz Special B
4oz Pale chocolate (225L)
2lbs Brown Sugar

2oz Cascade (5.5%) FWH
2oz Crystal (4.4%) FWH
2oz Cascade (5.5%) 20min
2oz Crystal (4.4%) 20min
1oz each Cascade and Crystal at Flameout

As he claims "irresponsible use of hops, but its Christmas!" Well first thing that popped out at me was 2lbs of brown sugar. While good for priming, I would imagine that adding 2 full pounds of it would only dry out the mouth feel. Maybe that's what the brewer wanted, but if they were looking for the molassesy taste... couldn't I just add some molasses as well?

Also, that's 4 oz of hops right at 60 minutes. Could I just go with a high AA hop instead? For instance, those 4oz add ~46IBU but if I add 1oz of Warrior, it goes to 40IBUs which is pretty close.

Also when I crunched those numbers in Beersmith it turned out more brown than red. I was looking for a nice red. I don't have any experience with Reds but one time I did try brewing a Red, it turned out rather brown and only the slightest burnt red. Any advice on that?

 

[kanzimonson]

1) Regarding sugar, my guess is that the person thought, "I want to dry this beer out, but it would simultaneously be nice to add a little flavor. I'll use brown sugar to do the trick." I think the idea is to contribute veeeeery slight flavor, but mostly to boost the alcohol while not making a beer that's too sweet.

2) I 100% agree with your assessment of the bittering hops.

3) I didn't use a calculator to evaluate this, but based on the ingredients this beer is definitely in that "so red it's brown" range. What do you care more about, following the recipe or making it red? If you want it red, I think you could cut the chocolate malt in half and not really see much difference in flavor.

 

[snipper_cr]

For me color is more important. I was just following this recipe because it intrigued me, a hoppy red in time for christmas to compliment my flagship spiced ale.

Thanks for the input. My Spiced holiday ale is already pretty high in the ABV so I am not looking to make another ass kicker.