Adding Fruit to Hopped Kit

[soundhlr]

Aloha from Hawaii. I'm working on my 3rd homebrew. 1st 2 turned out great but I wanna change it up a tad. I ended up getting a Coopers IPA hopped kit this time and I was wondering if I could add some fruit in there. I live amongst a forest of wild guavas which might be good but how do I get em in the beer? I can try any fruit really but thought local would be cool...apple bananas, papaya, mango. Just where and when do I add the stuff and would a IPA with fruit be good? I've read that you shouldn't boil the fruit. A search on google showed someone did a Cherry IPA and rated it excellent but no recipe.

Josh

[danno]

mash up some fruit, and freeze it for a couple of days. this will bust up the cell walls and get more flavor out of it. then, I'd simmer it in a pan, but not boil as you said, (over 170º for 10 minutes) to kill any beasties. then, I'd add it to the secondary when you rack your beer. you'll get some refermentation as the yeasts go after the sugar in the fruit, but that's fine. you may end up needing a tertiary, to get your beer off the fruit sludge after a couple of weeks, depending on the clarity you want...

don't use pineapple, unless you like the taste of gasoline.