Beer to the Boil?

I'm making my first pumpkin ale right now and I had an idea. it could be good or it could be the worst thing I've ever thought of...you tell me.
I don't want it to be overwhelming PUMPKIN, but more of a fall seasoning with a tiny hint of pumpkin.

Can I add some of Southern Tier's Pumpking to my boil to achieve this tiny hint instead of going through the pumpkin baking or pie filling options?

Smack me if I deserve it and let me know why this is a bad idea...or good.
Thanks!
D3

Well the pumpkin it's self doesn't lend that much flavor to the beer. The noticeable flavor comes from spice additions. You could probably brew a 'pumpkin' ale without any pumpkin at all and just get by with spice additions. If you only want a hint of spice you might want to consider not adding spice until bottling/kegging. This way you get the scent of spices and less flavor. Atleast if you drink it relatively young. As it ages the alcohol and age will extract more and more flavor.
That said I just brewed a pumpkin ale saturday and used a pumpkin and spice additions in the boil. You can cut and clean the pumpkin, put 1/4 cup of water in each half and then put it in the microwave for 15-20 minutes on high rather than roast it in your oven for a couple hours.

If you're looking for a hint from a finished beer, then blend post-fermentation. Adding to the boil won't do much for you.

But I think adding some pumpkin pie spices at the end of the boil is far easier.

Sounds like you just want a hint of spices,use like a teaspoon or so of your favorate pumpkin spices. Or use the spices that they use in pumpking. Seems like a waste of some good beer but I wouldnt know the outcome Ive never tried it.If you did add the beer I would add it at the end. I would just drink it and add spices toward the end of the boil.But I like using pumpkin also.It adds color,slickness,sometimes body or depth of character and some vegetable tannins.

I guess I was taking more of a hop addition approach in that the last 15min of the boil I would add a few ounces of the ST Pumpking. I like the flavor of the fall seasonals/pumpkins ect but didn't want to have my head ripped off or get smacked in the face with an overly pumpkin flavor. Being my first pumpkin batch I think I'll try the recipe as created (sans pumpkin) so I can form a base. Then I'll experiment with next years recipe to see what is better.

Just catching up on the other replies. Jonmohno, this is what I was thinking. just a bit at the end to give a hint of pumpkin. Like I said in my prev post though, I'm sticking with the recipe and only using the spices this time around. Oh and I wouldn't be wasting such a good beer...I'd be drinking most of it ...consider it a sacrifice to the pumpkin beer gods lol!

Seems to me the sooner the boil and adding spices the more in the background they are so adding them closer to the end it ends up -more up front in aroma/taste depending how much you use. Kind of like hop additons. You can always add more spices after you sample before bottleing if you think its kind of too weak.

Just a follow up....
I ended up drinking the pump king as I was brewing and added the remaining 6oz to the boil for the last 5 min. I didn't recognize that flavor in mine. I'm sure more would have made more of a difference.
Turns out I went a little heavy on my hops and it turned out more like a Sierra Tumbler than a pumpkin/spiced. It was still good but I learned about holding consistent fermenting temps with this batch(swung between 72-79). I'll brew this one again and try to keep it around 65.

i added 1 15oz can of pure pumpkin to the mash of my last pumpkin ale, and it added that flavor i needed to my spice-only recipe. made a "don't bother" recipe into a "yep, next year" recipe