Ichabod's Imperial Pumpkin Stout Recipe Kit

Very nice stout.

I have mixed feelings about this one, as the description is quite misleading. This is labeled as a stout, though I think it'd be best characterized as a Porter or Brown Ale. Other inconsistencies, based on my experience:

Page Description | Recipe | Actual
1.074 OG | 1.085 | 1.077*
1.017 FG | 1.021 | 1.021
7.5% ABV | 8.24 | 7.35
12+ pounds malt | 10 lb LME | 10 lb LME, 1 lb DME
Deep Brown (30) SRM | 59.52 | ~27

My biggest gripe is the claim to having over 12 pounds of malt. It was shipped with 10 lb LME and, after missing the OG, I added an extra pound of DME that I had on hand. Even so, I was still shy of the OG mark per the recipe. The other big swing is on SRM. Depending on which source you look at, this should either be Deep Brown or Black. My final product was much lighter, which is why I dispute whether this is a stout or not. Maybe the specialty grains were not crushed enough, I'm not sure. And then the ABV was quite off - over 1%. Why are there so many inconsistencies between the description and the attached recipe instructions? This is baffling.

The good - the pumpkin spice and the vanilla come through and the overall flavor is quite nice. It's just not as big of a beer as I was hoping for.

Everything was fine except the grains were not filled in the muslin bags. They came in a separate plastic bag and the muslin bag that came with the kit was too small for the 2.5 pounds of grains included. The muslin bag split as I transferred the grains. Luckily I had an extra one handy.
All the years I've ordered from you folks the grains came contained in the proper sized muslin bag. Not a big deal but please include the proper size muslin bag to hold a large amount of grains.
Thanks. You guys are great.