A Traditional Hydromel

I'm trying my hand at making a lower ABV mead, so I used 2 lbs of honey and will go for a traditional mead with no other flavors.

As per my usual routine, I heated up water in the pot to liquefy the honey and heated up 4 cups of spring water in the kettle. It came out at around 114F,  so pour a small amount into a glass bowl I added spring water to it, reducing it to a temp of 104.5F, which is in the range of 104F-109F for the D47 yeast for rehydrating. However, the kettle water temp had dropped, so I heated it again.

Setting the yeast aside, I took a cup of hot water, added it to the fermenter, and added 1/2 tsp of Bentonite and shook thoroughly. I then added the 2 lbs of honey to the fermenter, the rest of the hot water and shook thoroughly. Because I had reheated the water, it seems the must temp was very hot because after adding the 1/2 tsp. of energizer, the 1 tsp of nutrient, and enough reserved water to fill the fermenter, the must temp was still in the high 80s, too hot to pitch the yeast.

It actually took about 2 hours to lower the must temp enough and I was worried the yeast may have been damaged or killed by rehydrating so long without nutrient.

I took a hydrometer reading and it was 1.094, higher than I anticipated because it suggests an ABV of 12.5%, higher than what I really wanted. I'm also guessing the D47 will ferment it dry, so it will need back sweetening. May need to go to 1-1/2 lbs. of honey next time.

The pH reading, though, seemed exceptionally high at around 5.60. I initially added a 1/2 tsp of calcium bicarbonate thinking that would lower the pH, but it actually raised it to about 6.50. Of course, I needed to add acid blend to increase the acidity and lower the pH. It required adding 1-1/2 tsp of acid blend to get it down to around 4.38.

UPDATE 9/24/2017: I had an MEA during the night because I had filled the fermenter too high, and knew it was too high, but hoped against hope it would not do so. Wrong! Also degassed the mead and took readings of temperature, pH, and gravity. Temperature of the mead was around 73F, the pH was 4.11, and the gravity was down to 1.074.