Going for a beer that is crushable with smooth bitterness, lots of hop flavor with a crisp malt profile...
I’ve had problems lately with astringent flavors in my hoppy beers. Thus the reason for the small 60 minute addition...
1054 OG
The trouble is that phrases like "pale ale" mean different things to different people - are you talking the classic meaning, like Bass? Or are you going for a more US interpretation of the phrase?
I'm not even sure what a "crisp" malt profile looks like, other than perhaps light and fairly characterless - so pilsner-heavy? Personally that would just emphasise any astringency and I would go in the opposite direction.
From a British perspective, the recipe looks fine, except the OG looks a bit high to be really balanced, which is what you want for "crushability", particularly combined with a high-attenuation yeast. Personally I'd be looking for something closer to 1045 with American Ale yeast (I assume you mean Wyeast 1056?), maybe a few points higher with a lower-attenuation British yeast.
The trouble with "astringency" is that it can be hard to know what you're talking about over the internet, as different people use it for different flavours such as high attenuation or bitterness as well as "true" astringency from tannins. But reducing the bitterness is just a coverup, it's better to fix the underlying problem.
And astringency is usually connected with water one way or another. You don't say where you are, but usually there's a basic water analysis for your area published on your water company's website. It's not perfect, but it's a good place to start. If you have problems with your kettle furring up, then you definitely need to pay attention to water chemistry and the pH of your mash.
Hop quantity is fine, it's pretty similar to my house beer for weekday drinking, but it depends what you view as "lots of hop flavor" so I wouldn't argue if you wanted more. Whilst you're developing the beer I'd probably reduce the number of different hops, there's always a danger that instead of complexity you just end up with "grey".
I'm afraid you need a whole lot more hops....
I would add Flaked oats or Oat malt and some Rye malt ( malted, not flaked ) + a warmer mash, like 154F/68C. In my opinion, it will accomplish a few things: the perception of body and mouthfeel, which is important in a lower ABV/ lower hopped style, like a Pale Ale.
For 5 gallons, it's really not much. Maybe a Blonde Ale, but not a Pale Ale.
It's amazing how British brewers, the masters of "lower ABV/ lower hopped style" in generally only use oats when forced to by the combined efforts of the German Navy and British bureaucracy. Ultimately I guess it depends, are you going for a beer that's more inspired by New England or old England. If you drink Bass or Landlord and think "it could do with a ton of Citra and 20% oats" then that's fine - but Bass and Landlord are fine things in their own way.
I'm not a hop head, but 25 IBU is probably a tad on the low side for a normal pale ale.
Bass is the archetypal traditional pale ale, and I'd guess is only in the high 20's in its modern incarnation.
I wouldn't give too much of importance to water profile as a homebrewer. It's possible to brew great beer without adjusting your water at all. If your tap water is fresh and doesn't include chloride, it's probably good enough for homebrewing. If you have to buy distilled water, adjusting it is good practice.
Water is a good thing to be aware of, but it's one of the last things to be really worried or focusing on, unless your tap water is crap.
That's easy to say in somewhere like Finland, where your water supply is mostly surface water coming off granite and metamorphic rocks - but it's far more of a problem when you're somewhere that has mostly groundwater coming through chalk. Crap water is a lot more common that you might think. I'm lucky where I brew to have water more like Finland - but I've lived in houses where there was so much bicarbonate in the water that it came out of the tap visibly "fizzy". If you have noticeable chlorine smell or problems with kettles furring up then you definitely want to be fixing your water, and even if it's not that obvious it's worth a look at a water report just in case you have one of the hidden "nasties" like iron or manganese.
