Cherry Vanilla Mead: Now with cherries and vanilla!

Tonight we transferred the plain mead into a carboy over one and a quarter pounds of dark sweet cherries (frozen, then thawed) and three vanilla beans (OMG - the smell left in the bottles!!!! I think I'll put some sugar in them and make a weak vanilla sugar) split lengthwise. It filled the carboy, a 750 ml wine bottle, and half a Grolsch bottle (16 oz). Whew. I put the two smaller bottles (no fruit or vanilla in these) into the fridge to stop fermentation, so I can cap them up in a couple of weeks and use for topping up as necessary. Or maybe I'll wait for the smaller one to clear and drink it. Dunno. This stuff tasted soooooo good. A little "green", young, but it was definitely not rocket fuel. Very smooth and sweet. I hope it stays like this, with added goodness of cherry and vanilla. I'm thinking of adding a maraschino cherry to each bottle when I bottle this stuff.

Current Temp: 78 degrees
S.G.: 1.050

K1V-1116 has an official alcohol tolerance of 18% (so it would chew through my original amount of sugar and be ready for more), but apparently usually poops out around 16% in practical terms. I hope the cherries add enough sugar to make it end slightly on the semi-sweet side. Yeah. I like sweet drinks. Sue me. *grins* Worse comes to worst, I can just add some more honey at the end.