Pumpkin Ale Questions

I'm ready to try my first AG brew, a pumpkin ale. I want something that has a definite pumpkin pie flavor. After searching, I have settled on Mark Pasquinelli's Holiday Pumpkin Ale recipe (from Zymurgy 2008). I don't have the magazine, but I found someone posted it or some of it on a forum. It was scaled for a 12-gallon batch. Has anyone brewed this?

I'm thinking I'll half the recipe so I'll have 6-gallons in primary and rack to 5-gallon secondary because I expect some pumpkin sediment. Does this sound like the right thing to do?

The recipe says to cube and coat the pumpkin with brown sugar and roast for 2-3 hours @ 300 degrees. How much brown sugar should I use for this since the 8 oz. in the recipe is added to the boil with 60 min remaining?

The spices are supposed to steep for an additional 5 min after flame out. Does this mean the should be in a bag and removed at that time?

Since my initial volume will be 6-gallons and the expected OG is 1.066, will I need 2 vials of the White Labs yeast? I don't really want to create a starter.

I appreciate any advice. My scaled-down version of the recipe looks like this:

8 lbs. Maris Otter 38ppg, 4°L
4 lbs. Munich (Light) 34ppg, 10°L
2 lbs. Aromatic 36ppg, 35°L
10 oz. CaraMunich 34ppg, 50°L
10 lb. Neck Pumpkin, prepared @ 90 min boil
8 oz. Brown Sugar 42ppg, 40°L @ 60 min boil
1.25 oz. Fuggles hops 4.6%, Pellet 1.25 oz. @ 45 min boil
1 Tbsp Saigon cinnamon @ 5 min boil
1 tsp Nutmeg, fresh ground @ 5 min boil
1 Tbsp Ginger root, fresh ground @ 5 min boil
White Labs WLP002 English Ale Yeast
4 tsp Vanilla (in secondary)
3.5 oz. Corn sugar (Priming, lower carbonation level)

I would make a 1 liter starter even with the two vials, or just make a larger starter 3 liter starter and use one vial. You're going to need about 270 billion yeast cells and I think that white lab vials only have an avg 100 billion per vial.

I usually just throw the spices in with about 5 min left not in a bag.

I have the magizine in front of me now with the recipe for 6 gallon batch. Your recipe look right except the magizine uses 5lbs of pumpkin boiled for 90 minutes. Also, you need 3 tsp of cinnamon.
The article only states to sprinkle the pumpkin chunks with brown sugar. No amount is given. Be careful not to include any skin. The skin contains a mild exfoliant and may cause your fingers to tingle.
I agree with bmcmahan. You can't go wrong with making a large starter, and I would also just throw the spices in the boil with out a bag.
Original Gravity: 1.071
Final Gravity: 1.015
IBU: 19
SRM: 12
Hope this helps