[Gorzaloon]

I think it was closer to 12%. 12%, I believe, is the point at which the boys who make the magic kill themselves off. Most natural wines are around 12%, if I remember correctly. Please feel free to correct where needed.

After the yeasts die off, the zymase is still around. That's why the added sugar will carbonate the bottle, even in a perfectly clarified lager that supposedly has no free yeast cells.

From what I can recall, it would not surprise me, since by the end of a Quart bottle, remembering where I lived was a chore...Not impossible, just to hard to bother with.

Damn, I am going to make some! :-)

[Dinsdale]

You can get yeast that go's higher. Saki yeast gos to 15% and has been around for a long time.

The moonshiners have a yeast that, in a few days, go to 20% on sugar. Nobody I know uses it as they are all basically hobbyists cooking up fruit brandies with extra crops and dropped fruit. They are looking for something drinkable (For definitions of drinkable exceeding 150 proof.)