Shopping and Cranberry Mead!

Okay, so I finally talked to my mom and got the low down on what is going on with my Ancient Orange. She says it's happily burping away (about 1 bubble every 10 seconds or so), so I had her top it up with water. I can't wait to go over there and have a smell!

I went out shopping today, first to DeFalco's and picked up a huge amount of equipment. I also got 7 and a half pounds of local honey at $2 a pound (much better than $3 a pound for cheapo overprocessed store brand stuff). Then I went to the grocery store and picked up some other stuff I needed (like an extra pound of cranberries). Came home and got a batch of Cranberry Mead started. I'm so excited! I don't think I let the must cool down enough, but I think that since the temperature was lower than the temp Lalvin said to rehydrate at, it won't kill the yeast. So here's the log:

Yule Garland Mead
3# local honey
26 oz cranberries, thawed and popped (by hand - the food processor
is packed in our storage unit somewhere)
water
pectic enzyme
campden
D47 yeast

Popped cranberries and put in primary. Added 6 cups of honey (3#) over the cranberries. Added hot tap water and stirred to dissolve the honey. Rehydrated yeast according to package instructions while must cooled. Added yeast, pectic enzyme, and one crushed campden tablet.

O.G. 1.145 (estimated, it was off my hydrometer's scale, adjusted for temperature)

This is based off a recipe from GotMead, but since I don't have quick access to sage honey, I am modifying a bit. I will go ahead and rack it off the fruit in a week. I might go ahead and rack onto some cinnamon, just to get a little more "Yule" flavor in it.