Low ABV A/IPA help

Hi all,
I want to brew a low ABV beer for my dad who loves ale, especially APAs, but for medical reasons cannot drink too much alcohol! I've been inspired by a couple of threads, in particular the mad fermentationist recipe here: http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2012/01/vienna-malt-session-ipa-recipe.html and so have adjusted the malt profile and yeast significantly from a typical APA. Perhaps this is straying too far into the mini-IPA territory, but comments on the recipe (as in, any obvious bad ideas) welcome:

35L batch, all grain
2.2 kg (46.3%) Maris Otter
2.2 kg (46.3%) Vienna
0.25 kg (5.3%) Dark Crystal (90L)
0.1 kg (2.1%) Aromatic

Will add all hops late:
~8 AAU citra, ~4 AAU cascade (15g each) @ 15 mins
~8 AAU citra, ~4 AAU cascade (20g each) @ 10 mins
50g each citra / cascade whirlpool
50g each citra / cascade dry hop

S-04 yeast.

BrewToad (god, sometimes BrewToad is so frustrating - the OG/IBU change when I save the recipe vs editing) has me at around 1.03 OG and 24 IBU.

Does this sound like too many mixed up styles?

Cheers!

 

there are overlaps between session IPA and APA, it's normal to mix up similar styles...

 

I guess I meant too much going on not just with the APA / IPA crossover, but the low ABV, the aromatic and vienna malts, and the english yeast.

 

The nice thing about brewing is that styles are open to interpretation and fit loosely into their respective categories. I think your recipe looks great. I will say that you can never go wrong with carapils or oats (or a combination of the two) to bring out the malt character and mouth feel, coupled with a medium-meduim high mash temp. As far as crossing over, if by APA you mean an American Pale Ale then you are far from it. Definitely a traditional English Pale Ale is what you're brewing. But either way I think you're looking at a tasty and sessionable brew! Cheers!

 

So I went ahead and brewed this yesterday. Missed my target 68C by a degree, mashed at 67 for an hour.

I brew at an open brewery and buy most my ingredients there; they had no citra in or many other citrus/tropical hops other than mosaic so I subbed that in (17.5g and 25g at 15/10 mins to account for the AA). I did the whirlpool (or is it a hopstand?) for 10 minutes at 89C and also did a shorter than normal boil.

As I expected, I wasn't very good at predicting my efficiency and/or chiller loss, so collected 33L of wort at 1.036. The wort tasted pretty good, if a touch darker and hazier than expected. Will come back with tasting results when it's finished and conditioned.

 

Those Mosiac hops should add a different, but welcome taste profile. as far as the others, way beyond my skill level.

(many of my home creation 1 gallon test batches are citra and/or mosiac hops)