Costco Clover Dry Mead

At the end of the year, we were at Costco stocking up for our New Year's party in Big Bear when a 6 pound bottle of clover honey for $7.99 caught my eye. I picked up two bottles with the intention of making a very inexpensive mead. Honey prices have gone up quite a bit and this was certainly a deal! Though I could have made this mead months ago, I wanted to do some more research since my first 2 attempts were relatively in the dark. During last month's QUAFF meeting, Harold gave a presentation with a procedure that I could easily follow.
Costco Clover Dry Mead
5 Gallons, No Heat
12lbs. Busy Bee Pure Clover Honey
4 Gallons Carbon-Filtered Water
1/4 tsp. Diamonium Phosphate
1/8 tsp. Fermaid K
1/4 tsp. Yeast Nutrient

Mixed thoroughly (takes a long time to do this manually)

OG: 1098
pH: 4.55

Oxygen, 4 minutes via aeration stone

Yeast Batting Line-up (rehydrated combined at 105'F):
1 Pack Lalvin Ec 1118 (Champagne)
2 Packs Red Star Premier Cuvee

I will follow up with all of the baby-sitting tasks during the first week (nutrient additions, pH, adjusting pH, etc).

UPDATE: July 12th
Tested pH: 3.44
Added 1/8 tsp. DAP, 1/16 tsp. Fermaid K, and 1/2 tsp. Calcium Carbonate (raise pH)
Stirred for two minutes and retested pH: 3.69
Added 1/2 tsp. Calcium Carbonate, stirred, and retested pH: 3.90

UPDATE: July 14th
Tested pH: 3.57
Added 1/8 tsp. DAP, 1/16 tsp. Fermaid K, and 1 tsp. Calcium Carbonate (raise pH)
Stirred for two minutes and retested pH: 4.0

UPDATE: July 16th
Tested pH: 3.79
Added 1/8 tsp. DAP, 1/16 tsp. Fermaid K, and 1/2 tsp. Calcium Carbonate (raise pH)
Stirred for two minutes and retested pH: 3.96
This concludes the nutrient additions though I will revisit pH at the end of the weekend to keep it above 3.8 (though I just saw that Harold wrote that pH should ideally be 4.0-4.2). After the weekend, I'll rack to a 5 gallon carboy. There it will sit until December.

UPDATE: November 23rd
FG: 0994
I will rack this into a keg tomorrow. This is the first time I've had mead come out with a nice flavor and no perceivable fusel alcohol. A big thanks to Harold for the tips! I think I will carbonate this for some holiday sparkling mead.

Original:	1.098
Final:	0.994
Alcohol By Weight:	11.1 %
Alcohol By Volume:	13.9 %