Carbonation by dilution

Ingredients
1

Hi All!

Pretty new to brewing, a few batches under my belt though!.  A question has been plaguing me that I can’t find an exact answer to.  We put yeast in something with sugars and it happily makes alcohol until 1) it runs out of sugar or 2) it reaches a point where it exceeds its alcohol tolerance.  From everything I read it seems one would normally ferment until dry and then add sugar at bottling for carbonation.  Could one also ferment until they hit the alcohol tolerance and they carbonate by diluting the mixture down (thus reducing the ABV), assuming sugar is in excess?  Or does reaching the alcohol tolerance actually permanently kill the yeast off?  Or is there some other limitation I’m not thinking of here?

Thanks!!!

2

For one thing, most yeasts will go to at least 10-12% so you’d be making a lot of really strong beer.  And there’s no consistently accurate way to predict alcohol tolerance.  Not only does it vary from strain to strain, but also depending on yeast health.