Aging and autolysis?

[aqualung23]

So my first mead (cyser) is going bonkers in the carboy right now, and I was thinking about the fact that the yeast is all going to die because this particular cyser is going to exceed its alcohol tolerance (prepping for 500 billion funerals is hard work). From my understanding, yeast slowly "cleaning up" fusels and esters is why aging makes things better. So if I killed all the yeast, won't the effect of aging be diminished? Would it not be better to make a drier mead under the yeast's alcohol tolerance and then back sweeten later to get better results from aging? Have I simply gone mad?

 

[Arpolis]

The Aging process is not just from the yeast. There are other chemical processes that happen naturally that causes a mead to age. Things like cleaning up diacetyl and other random by products happen over a period a several days after fermentation. So in most cases it is not recommended to keep a bed of lees past 30 - 60 days.