Mead-Home brewed! Round 1

So about a 2 weeks ago I started thinking that I best get a mead going. No real reason why beyond the obvious ones-age old fermented drink (dated back at least to 1700BC), the simplicity of ingredients-honey/water/yeast, and of course the most obvious one-Mead's are delicious! I'm also sure I was also very much primed by national mead day which was pointed out repeatably in all my beer literature both online and off.

I really wanted to start this off by getting a good base set, and then (if it took with me) building upon that base recipe down the road to incorporate fruits, ales, and "other" so thats what I did.

Here's the rundown: 7 lbs of honey (5 being local straight up organic honey) and the remaining 2 being Orange Blossom honey (again organic), Wyeast smack pack of "sweet mead" yeast (ie-not bone dry mead as the end product), some yeast nutrient, and enough water to top off 2.85 gallons.

There is some controversy out there over if you should pasteurize the honey or not, I had opted not to but to rather heat up to 100 degrees F or so just so that the honey mixed well with the water, after that it was all aerating and pitching yeast (my reasoning was based in that I did not want to lose the honey aroma and that I trusted the natural protection the honey brought with it against foreign yeast and bacteria ).

Yep thats it!

Starting gravity came out to 1.129..which is the highest OG I've ever had! Its been in primary for one week and will likely stay there for another 2 weeks after which I will move to secondary. Secondary will hold for aa minimum 6 months after which I will move to tertiary for a time (yet to be determined..but likely at least another 4 months) to continue to clear and meld within itself as I'm sure it will basically be 15% rocket fuel for some time. After which all is said and done I will bottle in champagne bottles and give out as gifts.

Cheers!