Red Ale Revolution

I'm back in the saddle after a short hiatus for the holidays. I ended my winter break with a brewing session, and plan a couple more next week (more to come on that). I've been wanting to brew a version of a red ale for some time. One of the first beers I ever drank illegally was a Killian's Red I took from the store room of a restaurant I worked at when I was 18. Now the story isn't that I was so blown away by this beer, but simply that myself and red ales have come along ways since then. I love the newer wave of red ales, (at least they are new to me). This past year I had three great beers, all malty, caramely, and chock full of citrusy hops. Green Flash's Hop Head Red, Summit's Horizon Red Ale, and Lagunitas Imperial Red Ale. All three of these beers leave me wanting more, and wanting to brew my own version.
I formulated a recipe based off an India Red Ale recipe in Randy Mosher's Radical Brewing, but I made some changes and swapped out the bittering hops. This beer uses a lot of Munich malt, more than I've brewed with before, as well as a 4 oz of Cascade hops. It was nice to come across a deal this fall, where I secured some local organic whole Cascade hops for a great price, and have had the luxury of working through that pound. So I will also be adding 2 oz of whole hops to the secondary for dry hopping to really give it that hoppy nose. I'm quite excited about this beer, and the color came out perfect at this stage.
Here's the recipe:
Mini Mash- 2.5 lbs Organic Munich
.5 lbs Organic Crystal 120
.75 lbs Organic Crystal 60
.25 lbs Organic Chocolate
6 lbs Pale Organic LME
3.15 lbs Munich LME
Hops: 1 oz Organic Pacific Gem @ 60 (16% AAU)
2 oz Whole Leaf Organic Cascade @ 30
2 oz Whole Leaf Organic Cascade @ 5
Dry Hop: 2 oz Whole Leaf Organic Cascade
Yeast: 1056 American Ale

* The downside of brewing in Minnesota is it's damn cold in January, (since I'm not all grain, luckily the down side isn't freezing my ass off in a garage), but this past week it was hovering around 0 all week. I brewed this beer late at night and it was pretty cold in my basement. The water was too cold when I combined it with the wort, and it brought the temp down to 52, I pitched it pretty cold, but after moving it upstairs, putting blankets on it, and setting it next to the heater, it's up to 67 and bubbling away....everything I've read said it's not a problem to pitch colder and have the beer rise in temp, this is a bit extreme though. Anyone have any thoughts? I'm thinking it should be fine...
Next week I'm off to my annual trip to Pittsburgh, so will be enjoying some good Pennsylvania beer, especially East End, and hopefully some other goodies I can't get here in MN....
More to come.
Salud!
Bearded Brewer