pumpkin stout question(s)/recipe feedback

I'm going to my LHBS tomorrow to pick up ingredients for a pumpkin stout. The recipe I worked out is loosely based on my bourbon porter recipe.

Malt:
6# pale malt extract (syrup)
1# chocolate malt
1# roasted barley
1# crystal malt (120L)

Hops:
Nugget (1 oz, 60 min)
Fuggles (1 oz, 5 min)

So that's the stout recipe I've got worked out. I'm unsure on the quantity of pumpkin and spices to use. I was thinking a 5-6lb pumpkin, but I pulled that out of my ass, so I could be way off. I have no idea how much I need to use in terms of spices, as I've never done a beer with any kind of spice content before. Any feedback would be very much appreciated.

Will you be roasting the pumpkin? A 5-6lb pumpkin will yield 2-3lbs of meat after cooking for 30-60 min. I'm fairly certain most people include the pumpkin in the mash. I opted for adding it to the boil for 90 min. Something I learned, that I didn't anticipate - the pumpkin soaked up some of the sugars form the wort. Since I removed the pumpkin at the end of the boil, I wasn't able to 'sparge' or rinse it to help move the sugars from the pumpkin back into the wort - although I gave it as good a squeeze as I could (it was freakin hot though).

Most pumpkin recipes I have seen use some or all of the following: allspice, nutmeg, clove, ginger, cinnamon, and vanilla. With the exception of vanilla, most call for 0.5tsp to 1.5 tsp. (I went with 0.5 tsp, since I can always add more spice @ bottling time - but you can't un-spice it). Vanilla, I've found 2 whole beans for 5 gallons seems to be the norm.

I got an 8lb pie pumpkin from the local farmstand, so that should yield 3-4 lbs of meat. I'm planning on rubbing it with brown sugar and my spice mix (equal parts allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger) and roasting it. Should I put the pumpkin in with my steeping grains, or wait until the boil for that? Should I add all the pumpkin at once, or add it throughout the boil?

Add it all at once. As I said, I added it to the boil and the pumpkin sucked up some wort resulting in an og that was 10 points low. On the other hand, I didn't have enough room in my small pot (mash tun) for my grains and the pumpkin. I added my spices to the boil with 15 min remaining.

Add your spices at the end of the boil. This sterilizes them and they don't left behind in the mash. My first batch was quite subtle. My second was a tad over spiced.

I will say that there seemed to be a lot of aroma left coming out of the trub when I scraped it out of the fermenting bucket to dispose it. I still ended up with a tad more spice than I wanted.

LakewoodHomeBrew said:

Add it all at once. As I said, I added it to the boil and the pumpkin sucked up some wort resulting in an og that was 10 points low. On the other hand, I didn't have enough room in my small pot (mash tun) for my grains and the pumpkin. I added my spices to the boil with 15 min remaining.

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I used a spent grain bed for this beer completely, and used the grain as a strainer. I placed it on top of the grain and gently stirred just on the top to wash the pumpkin sugars and starches off.

If you were doing a complete mash/sparge you could just ad this step to the end.