CDA Recipe Feedback Needed

[Flatspin]

I'd love to hear some constructive feedback on this CDA recipe. For the last two years, I've been brewing and made some good process improvements, but recipe development still seems a bit of a black art. Sure, some of the basics are very useful - American 'C' hops go well together, don't overdo the roast malts, etc. But, some of the finer differences are still beyond my expertise. In particular the recipe below has a few things that I am thinking about.

First, does the hopping schedule look like it won't be too overwhelming. I am looking for something a bit more 'in your face' than the fruity cascade flavor, but don't want to be too rough.

Second, I'd like to have a decent malt profile to balance the hops. Many IPAs focus almost exclusively on hops. This is fine, but I like a balance in my beers, which is probably why I don't really care for bocks which seem all malt or Belgian blondes which seem all yeast to my palate.

Normally, I'd brew up the recipe and tweak from there, but there is a spring get-together that I will be going to in a little over a month (with 8 inches of snow falling here in Chicago it doesn't seem very spring-like right now!), I'd really like to have a spot on beer to share.

So anyways, here's the recipe, feel free to offer any suggestions:

Recipe Type: All Grain
Yeast: Safale S-04
Yeast Starter: Yes
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Original Gravity: 1.062
Final Gravity: 1.012
IBU: 75
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 days, 66F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): Chill and keg for 14 days

10 lbs Maris Otter
1 lbs Sugar
1/2 lb Chocolate Malt (375 deg L) - Add at Sparge
1/2 lb Carafa III - Add at Sparge
1/2 lb English Dark Crystal

0.5 oz. Columbus pellet (15.4% aa) - first wort hop 60 minutes
1 oz. Chinook pellet (13% aa) - 15 minutes
1 oz. Centennial pellet (10% aa) - 10 minutes
1 oz. Citra pellet (11% aa) - 5 minutes
0.5 oz. Columbus pellet - 5 minutes
1 oz. Centennial pellet - Whirlpool
1 oz. Chinook leaf - Keg hop
1 oz. Citra leaf - Keg hop

Irish Moss - 15 minutes
Clarity Ferm - added at same time as yeast

Have at it, any comments welcome!

 

[Dynachrome]

CDA - Chicago Democrat Ale?

It sounds like a really tasty beer.

The first wort hops add a nice subtle full bitter.

My similar beer

 

[thisone]

Looks like a solid recipe

 

[Flatspin]

CDA - Chicago Democrat Ale?

It sounds like a really tasty beer.

The first wort hops add a nice subtle full bitter.

My similar beer

Yikes no! My beer has no political affiliations.

It's a cascadian dark ale (or black IPA, or India dark ale, etc.) When I was putting the recipe together I used a British malt and yeast profile but added a bunch of American hops.

 

[Flatspin]

So many times these threads just tend to die out and if you go searching you won't know if the recipe worked or not. This one did - its fantastic!

The FG ended up at 1.018, higher than I would have liked, but the sweetness was very well balanced by the hops. Something about the aroma combination of citra and chinook is just magic. I only have a few recipes that get re-brewed a few times, but this is going to be one of them. Highly recommended!

 

[Dynachrome]

I agree on the threads dieing out. Thanks for the follow up.