I really enjoyed reading the pumpkin recipe in the latest issue of Zymurgy. I’d love to brew a pumpkin beer next but am still at the beginner level. Is there a kit you would recommend that will serve as a nice base? I want to use all of the various ingredients (pumpkin, honey, spices, etc) but need to find a kit that will lay the foundation. Thanks!
Northern Brewer has a “Smashing Pumpkin” kit. I brewed the extract version of it for like my third or fourth batch ever… It’s pretty solid
I am glad you liked the article.
You could easily brew the recipe without the pumpkin with all extract. For the pumpkin I recommend at least a partial mash but if you absolutely can’t do that you could just (gads) throw the pumpkin in the boil :o and get a little character out of it (but you did not hear that from me) 
Are folks getting ripe, fresh pumpkins already?
I buddy of mine has a great AG recipe, and I wanna try it this year in my commercial brewery, but it takes real pumpkins, roasted and such.
I’ve seen organic pumpkins at a couple of grocery stores in and around Dallas.
Canned is much easier and available year round.
Yes, just like extract brewing. Nothing wrong with that, but I prefer to have as much control over the process and such as possible.