For how long can I keep adding honey/fruit?

[Drinksahoy]

So I started a 5 gallon batch February 15. It had an SG of 1.100.
A week later when fermenting was really slowing down I added 16oz of frozen blackberries, thawed.
On March 1 I racked to secondary, filtering out all the fruit, and added another 16oz of blackberries this time pureed into a bag.
On march 18 I racked again and added antoher 16oz of blackberries, this time whole again and not blended up.

I want to add at least 2 more 16oz bags and also add more honey hoping to come very close to 71B's 18% alcohol tolerance.
I want to carbonate this stuff, which is the ONLY reason I don't want to surpass that and make it sweet.
I don't have a c02 tank so unfortunately I have to choose between sweet or carbonated it seems.

Am I doing too much to this? Is there even enough yeast left after 2 transfers? (It looks veerryyy clear).
-wynx

 

[Maylar]

71B is a 14% yeast. You're probably there now. If you want to carbonate I think I'd skip the added sugar and bottle it. If the yeast hasn't reached its limit there will be enough for carbonation even after 2 rackings.

 

[Drinksahoy]

I didn't know that! If that's the case I doubt that there's any left to carbonate. I think I'll just pass on that dream for this batch, let it go still and dry...and then that means I should be able to safely back sweeten it since it's at it's alcohol potential?

I plan to age for a few months. Should I wait until I'm about to bottle before back sweetening it?

Edit: it's actually still prettt carbonated. Would it be safe to cap it and fridge it? I'm thinking the top won't pop off but what do I know.

 

[Drinksahoy]

That way I could save the carbonation for when I'm ready to bottle it.

 

[Maylar]

If it's still bubbling then the ferment isn't done. Got a hydrometer? You need to take a gravity reading to know if the yeast has given up or not.

 

[Drewed]

You can also sweeten with non fermentable sugars, or sugar substitutes, and have both sweet and carbonated.

 

[Drinksahoy]

It is not still bubbling and hydrometer is reading .96
Ive known it's been done fermenting but I thought adding more honey would kick start it again.
Now that I know the ABV potential of 71B is 14% I do want to add honey and cap it and let it age capped, sweet, and carbonated.

Is this a good or bad idea? Hoping I haven't overlooked something.

 

[Maylar]

If it's at 0.996 then the yeast didn't reach alcohol tolerance. Adding more sugar will restart fermentation, which would work for carbonation. But you can't cap a sweet mead and hope the yeast only eats enough sugar to carbonate. Your options are to carbonate a dry mead, or stabilize and sweeten without carbonation, or as Drewed suggested sweeten with a non fermentable sugar and add only enough fermentable to carbonate.

 

[Drewed]

Agreed. You can't bottle carbonate a sweet mead. Attempts lead to bottle bombs.
I suppose you could sweeten it with fermentable sugars, and monitor the bottle pressure and pasteurize it when the correct carbonation is reached. But then you are cooking your completed product and could throw off the flavors.