pumpkin ale with no pumpkin flavor

Did a pumpkin ale from a recipie from the LHBW. It called for .5 oz pumpkin spices the last 2-3 minutes before knockout in a hops bag. Followed directions, primary 4 weeks, bottle conditioning 4 weeks. No spice flavor. I used a commercial pumpkin pie spice mix packaged by McCormick. Am I missing something? What does everybody else do with the spices in pumpkin ale?

I use whole spices (cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg) with 15 min left in boil and remove at flame out. I have had success with spice flavor by doing this.

Just brewed a pumpkin ale this past weekend used same technique but this time I added some pumpkin pie spice and more whole spices at flame out and left in primary fermenter.

After my primary fermentation I'm going to taste and add more spice if necessary using the 'spice tea' method in secondary.