Exotic fruits for spring beers.

Ever tried adding exotic fruit to the wort at the end of or after the boil as a means of pasteurization? I am feeling a Habanero-Honey-Mango wheat. Perhaps a Pineapple-Mango thing.
I get the feeling there are good reasons why these ingredients are not commonly found in beer. Taste perhaps or maybe acidity.
Looking for feedback in this regard-
Thanks all~

my LHBS sells dried starfruit

I think it is mainly used in wine BTW

Interesting. My local Health food store sells dried organic fruits and veggies as well. I discovered several threads addressing the banana idea. I'm still looking around this site and I'm quite impressed with the amount of info. It's really quite a lot to absorb.
Thanks

Anybody have any ideas on working a light elderberry- kiwi, or maybe starfruit ale?

You can pretty much add any fruit that you want to your beer. I always rack from primary to a secondary vessel with fruit in it, and then rack it again about a week later so it can clear a little more. I've done a Peach IPA, Peach/Mango Pale, Strawberry Wheat, and Blackberry Wheat this way and they all turned out great. I think that kiwi might give the beer a darker color, but would probably taste great.

pineapple is VERY high in sugars,but adds a lot of acidity to a brew

Another thing about pineapple is it has a fair amount of protease enzymes which will chew up all the proteins you need for head retention (enough that pineapple juice makes a decent meat tenderizer). You could probably inactivate it by pasteurizing or maybe even boiling the fruit though.

As others have said, you can use any sort of fruit in your beer. You really need to be careful with fruit like pineapple and kiwi that have enzymes that destabilize proteins. Make sure you are adding them in a way that you can denature the enzyme first.

Keep in mind with fruit very little of the content of the fruit itself is flavor-contributing. Most fruit is water, fiber, sugar and acid. The flavor components are emphasized by the blend of sugar and type of acid(s) in the fruit. The water doesn't contribute anything, the fiber doesn't stay with the beer and the sugar gets fermented so you are mostly getting the small flavor components and acidity. So really think not just about the flavor of the fruit in the beer but also the type of acidity, how acidic the fruit is and how that acid will play with the acidity and flavor of the beer. Generally, a fruit low in acidity, like strawberry, requires more fruit to get flavor out of it than a very acidic fruit, but the acidity of the beer and the grain/hop choices can also emphasize the fruit flavor instead.

ReverseApacheMaster said:

Generally, a fruit low in acidity, like strawberry, requires more fruit to get flavor out of it than a very acidic fruit, but the acidity of the beer and the grain/hop choices can also emphasize the fruit flavor instead.

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Strawberry is quite high in Malic acid, and overall acidity. If you wanted to compare it to a fruit with very low acidity, then Papaya would be a great example. But then again, you have to deal with the tricky Papain enzyme if you go that route.