I brewed a pumpkin brown ale last year and will do one again this month for the fall. My brown ale recipe was pretty basic, so do what ever you'd like but I recommend throwing in some crystal 60 or above or some carafoam to give you some body to compliment the bitterness of the spices. I used a can of pumpkin puree, just threw it right into secondary. Only problem was that the puree soaked up so much beer. By time it was done I lost about a half gallon (spit it out you bastard!). So this year I hope to use whole pumpkin and add it to the boil around the 5 min mark like you would any kind of spice or just not even using any pumpkin (more on that below). Speaking of spice, the key with pumpkin beer is that when you drink it you are reminded of a pumpkin type of food because of the addition of aromatic spices found in pumpkin dishes (cinnamon, nutmet, brown sugar etc). Go easy on the spice, it doesn't age well and becomes very bitter. The spice is key because I don't know why you would want to drink somethign that taste like pumpkin; have you ever eaten a pumpkin plain with no spices, very very boring. So, when you think pumpkin beer, it's not about the pumpkin, it's about what reminds you of pumpkin.
