Fruit 'n Brews

I'm wanting to do a 'fruit' beer for the summer months, and just wondering what experiences/tips any of you may have to share. I'm still playing around with the recipes, but I'm sort of going in the direction of an American Wheat Ale.

Guess my issue is in whether to go with fresh/frozen fruit or to just use an extract. I'd obviously love to stick with actual fruit and not an extract.

The thing that comes to mind immediately with using fresh/frozen fruit, especially as it'd be my first attempt, is controlling the fruit flavor. Say I add X amount of fruit into the fermenter, it was too much, and now I've got a beer-flavored wine cooler instead of a really good beer made better with the fruit addition.

With the extract, I can add X amount just prior to bottling... check the flavor, add more if I need, or stop and go ahead and bottle.

Am I over thinking things? Should I just drop the paranoia and add X lbs of fruit and see how it comes out?

Frozen is better than fresh. If you used real fruit, it would take alot more than you think to over power the beer. Extract will give you the most control, as you said with your idea about bottling.

I did a Raspberry Wheat two summers ago, using an extract in the primary and a puree in the secondary. The biggest downside, IMO, was keeping the racking cane clean while racking over to the bottling bucket.