One more pumpkin thread... what spices to use?

I just brewed my first pumpkin ale last week, using a recipe I pulled together from different recipes on this site and the advice of my local homebrew shopkeeper. Got some Crystal & Victory malt in there, some wheat flakes, Goldings hops and, of course, pumpkin (60 oz). It sure tasted like pumpkin.

What I didn't add to the boil was any spices. I plan on adding them to the secondary when I rack it over, hopefully in a few days.

So what I'd like to know is, does anyone have any suggestions for what kind and how much to use for a 5 gal batch? I assume cinnamon and nutmeg, but am not really sure how much to use, or if I should use any other spices, too. We're looking to get a nice pumpkin pie kinda flavor, but something that won't punch you in the face with spice.

Any advice appreciated. Thanks.

Take a look at the second post in this thread.

Woops. Make sure that you divide those spices by 3, the recipe is for a 15Gal batch.

i did a similar recipe and used the spice from the above thread(divided by 3 for 5 gal) and IMHO, way to much. However, i used fresh spices from FreshMarket, and crushed whole clove myself. way too much clove for my taste. Now, part of that could be from using whole and crushing instead of using pre-crushed, who knows. But if you want something a little more spicer, nothing wrong with it.

with cloves... do you crush and include the stem as well?

Alright... I'll try that, perhaps with less clove... or maybe even without. Too much of a clove flavor might ruin it for me.

I feel a small amount of ginger is great for a pumpkin beer. It really gives a good taste to the beer.

i crushed the "whole" clove piece. Kind of a ball with a sort of stem coming off of it. Not an expert on clove, so not sure if it was appropriate to crush the whole thing or not, but would assume so. you can also add some extra spice to your primary or seconday, but it is aweful hard to get it out. I heard the longer spice sits, the more it mellows and you may be able to cold crash some it out, which is what i may do on that one