Pumpkin Ale Question

I brewed my first pumpkin ale and follwed the recipe to the letter. I questioned the homebrew store owner who invented the recipe about the amount of pie spice he recommended which seemed low compared to many I have read on here. He said I would be surprised how much spice I will taste. When i was bottling I tasted the beer and found the spice to be nearly non- exsistant. This being my first spiced beer and never tasting one before bottle aging I was wondering if more flavors come out with aging. Obviously it tasted young and a bit harsh as usual without bottle conditioning but I was wondering if I should expect more spice to come out as the beer mellows or will the spice get even weaker? I started with a pretty standard dark brown ale recipe as the base and added pumpkin and spice. Thanks in advance, Ken

the spices actually dull over time, and if you don't use fresh spices, they are much less pronounced. Many recipes for pumpkin or spiced holiday ale call for a lot of spice because they are designed with high abv and taste better after being left sitting and mellowing for a while.

If you are brewing an extra malty high abv pumpkin spice beer now, I would highly reccomend not even touching it till thanksgiving.

Yup, the spices will definitely fade, yet improve, over time.

The store owner may have been taking into account that you want to drink this beer for halloween and was dulling the spice profile so that it would be less pronounced and "ready sooner"