Alroy Irish Red

I've never brewed a Irish Red before.  I feel better already with that off my chest.  Normally I brew hop forward, Belgian style or a stout.  I am brewing this Irish Red (Style 9D) for a friendly brew off with 7 other home brewers.  With a malt forward classical beer like this, the recipes grain bill and yeast choice are my primary focus. Right now I have the recipe in its basic outline using Marris Otter and Belgian Munich as the base grains.  Getting the deep red color will be from a dab of Roasted Barley, Crystal 20 and Crystal 120 additions.  The hops will be Williamette and Northern Brewer.  For the yeast I am creating a huge starter of WLP028, Edinburgh Scottish Ale.  To recreate some of the carmelization that is noted in most of the commercial styles I pre-heated my boil kettle with water. During my sparge (I sparge VERY slow BTW) I turned the burner on full force. 

I am hypothesizing that the heat, sugar and air will create some Melanoidin flavors without the addition of Melanoidin malt.  Since I will not have a side by side comparison at the end I will have to go by feel on this one.