American Barleywine Recipe Critique

To celebrate my birthday and 30 years since homebrewing my first batch, I want to brew an American Barleywine. First time ever. Thinking in the manner of Bigfoot and similar. Half-size batch. I'm wondering about recipe tweaks. I don't want to run to a homebrew shop (4 hrs round trip) but have some ingredients on hand for making adjustments.

• Should I bump up the crystal? I have on hand an extra 8 oz of the Briess 60L, about 4 oz of Muntons 60L. Also a pound of Muntons Caramalt (12L) on hand. T
• Base malt blend? I'm happy with the targeted OG, so I don't think I want to boost overall base malts, but have enough of each on hand that I could go all 2row or all Maris if anyone felt that was going to be desirable, e.g., make it maltier with Maris.
• Mash temp adjustment? Build body with higher temp?
  
• Have considerable flexibility on hops, except for Chinook, if anyone thought it needed more. Middle additions, dry hops? If the IBU / GU seems a little out of balance, I have to say that I am have never found the steeping IBUs to deliver satisfying bitterness and tend to discount them in these calculations. Steeping temp is 180F.
• Yeast Pitch? I have 3 packs of US05 on hand. I was thinking for a half batch, one would be sufficient, but then I started looking at the Brewer's Friend Calculator, that reported a wide range in billions of cells per gram of dry yeast. At the low end, I would need three packs. At the high end, one. Maybe just split the difference and bump to two packs?

Recipe: Guessqui-centennial (American Barleywine)
(to celebrate birthdays, years in homebrewing, and I forget how many batches of beer, but we'll conservatively call it 150ish)

Batch Size (fermenter): 3.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.092 SG
Estimated Color: 13.4 SRM
Estimated IBU: 108.7 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 78.0 %

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name % Est IBU
5 lbs Brewers Malt 2-Row (Briess) (1.8 SRM) 47.3 %
5 lbs Maris Otter Malt (Muntons) (3.0 SRM) 47.3 %
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) 4.7 %
1.0 oz Chocolate Wheat (Weyermann) (415.0 SRM) 0.6 %
(just for color as I like those amber wavelengths)

1.00 oz Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus (CTZ) [13.30 %] Boil 60 min 64.8 IBUs
0.33 oz Chinook [11.90 %] - Boil 60.0 min 19.1 IBUs
1.50 oz Cascade [6.30 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 20.0 min 7.5 IBUs
1.50 oz Centennial [9.10 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 20.0 min 10.9 IBUs
0.67 oz Chinook [11.90 %] - Steep/Whirlpool 20.0 min 6.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg Safale American (DCL/Fermentis #US-05) [50.28 m Yeast

Mash Schedule: BIAB, Medium Body
Total Grain Weight: 10 lbs 9.0 oz

Saccharification Add 20.09 qt of water at 162 F to bring to 152 F, hold for 60 min

 

No accident. When I thought about an anniversary beer, Bigfoot came to mind so I looked at that recipe and others, and happened to have some compatible ingredients. I’ve only ever seen the beer in my area a couple summers back, and it was selling at a discount. Maybe I had the 2015 in 2016 or so. It was delicious.

 

Thanks, all. I'm brewing it today, with the original recipe, plus @MrOH's dry hop idea, only maybe I'll keg rather than bottle this batch. @NorCalKid 's post^^ plus the beer name itself helped select the hop I'll use in the dry addition. 2.5 oz.

I did consider the all Maris switch and dropping the crystal suggested by @chavinparty and @EvenMoreJesus. I decided I'm only going to know for sure if I brew it both ways. So, I guess I'm already planning my second barleywine.

 

Oh well, I used the Briess. I did have some Muntons C60 but decided to save it for a mild.