Pumpkin Beer

I am looking for opinions on Pumpkin brews since Fall is upon us. I have seen recipes, typically for ales and browns, that have pumpkin added and was just looking for a survey of preference and experience.

Ale vs brown vs wheat...although I think that depends a lot on what kind of beer is generally preferred, but as far as melding flavor?
Pumpkin filling/extract vs. adding real roasted pumpkin?
Add pumpkin to the boil or while fermenting?

Let me know what you think as I'm hoping to get started on a batch sometime soon!

People usually add in pumpkin during the mash since there is a lot of starches that need to be converted to sugars.

Pumpkin adds very little flavor to beer, and there's debate about whether or not it's worth the hassle. Most of the "pumpkin" flavor comes from the nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, etc...

Ale vs brown vs wheat

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FYI, Browns and Wheats ARE Ales. I've heard of pumkin ales based on browns, but have never had one, and had never had a pumpkin based on a wheat before until last weekend, when my GF brought home some Blue Moon Pumpkin that was pretty decent.

I find that the majority of pumpkin recipes are actually based off Amber Ale recipes. My 2010 pumpkin was the AHS pumpkin kit, which is based off an amber. I added two 29 oz cans of Spiced Libby's Pumpkin to the mash, and it turned out tasting like liquid pumpkin pie, which isn't everyone's tastes, but everyone loved it.

This year, I actually did a Dogfish Head Pumkin clone, which is pretty much a light porter base. I brewed back in July, going to keg this weekend. Brewed this one with 60 oz of organic pumkin puree, again, in the mash, then added 3 tbs. of pumpkin pie spice @ 10 min. in the boil.

Try them all mash boil secondary.Nobody seems to know.I preferr aging them a while thats what really seems to matter to me.Thats just me though. They seem to be fine anyway and its hard to tell a differnece if your not making the same recipe doing a differnt method every time.
I made a pumpkin wheat brown my last one,aged 4 months now its finally about where i like it too
An amber is a good base for a pumpkin.Probably an octoberfest or bock seems appropriate also.