Thoughts/suggestions appreciated for IPA

[89vision]

So I'm still pretty new to brewing, but I'm going to be brewing beer for a friend's bachelor party. He's into west coast IPAs and good whiskey, and I'm going to try my hand at combining them. Here's what I have planned so far for a 5.5 gallon batch:

Steeping grains: 8 oz Crystal 20L, 4 oz Honey malt
7 lbs light DME
3.15 lbs Maris Otter LME
.25 oz CTZ 60 mins.
.5 oz Chinook 30 mins.
.5 oz Simcoe 15 mins.
.25 oz CTZ 15 mins.
.5 oz CTZ 10 mins.
.5 oz Chinook 5 mins.
.5 oz Simcoe 5 mins.
1 oz Amarillo 5 mins.
1 oz Cascade, dry hop 7 days
2 oz American medium toast oak cubes, secondary 7 days
6 oz wheat whiskey, secondary 7 days

My thought process is I want the piney, citrus aroma/flavors, with a little spiciness from the Chinook and Cascade to hopefully meld well with the whiskey. I plan on boiling the oak cubes to get rid of some of the new wood flavor, then throw them in with the whiskey while the IPA is in primary. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions, especially with the hop schedule? Its kind of straddling the line between IPA and imperial, but I don't want to go too far into imperial territory for this one.

 

[Jwerner23]

A couple things I see there but I am not an expert so take my advice however you like. I would up the 60 min hop addition, .25 oz isn't going to give you really any bitterness especially with using honey malt. I would up the 60 min addition to atleast .5 oz. but would go 1 oz. myself. I would also probably get rid of the honey malt too. I would also up the dryhop to atleast 2 oz.

With the whiskey and oak cubes most people soak the cubes in whiskey for a week or two before they add it to the secondary and then let it sit and take samples till they have the oak flavor they want. I have never done a whiskey aged beer before but I have been research them to do one soon and this is the technique I have seen the most.
Hope this helps some

 

[89vision]

Yeah, there's already a lot going on and the honey malt doesn't really seem to fit in and might make it too much of a mess. Maybe replace it with some biscuit malt?

With the lower 60 minute hop addition, I've been reading up on hopbursting, for a smoother bitterness and more hop flavor. Sounds appealing to me, but I'm not sure how it works out in practice. Beersmith has it coming out to 72 IBUs (0.931 IBU/SG). Another ounce would be helpful. Think another ounce of the Cascade?

I like the Devil Makes Three lyric in your signature, by the way!

 

[Jwerner23]

Yea I would do another oz. of cascade for the dry hop. It will give you the citrus you are looking for. The biscuit might be good or I have used 4 oz. of Belgian Aromatic in my IPAs. Either one would work.

Yea Devil Makes Three are awesome, too bad most people don't know who they are. Love it when someone else knows good music.