As a fully paid up contrarian I guess I don't really understand the need for "recipes". That's like asking what is a really good recipe for a bread sandwich. If you can make a GOOD mead with honey, water, yeast and nutrient - and a GREAT mead can be made with just these 4 ingredients then a "recipe" is simply the addition of fruit or herbs or spices or nuts or flowers. You prefer a more intense flavor of those additives then you add more. You prefer a more subtle flavor of these then you add less. But the key to mead making is mastery of a traditional mead (a mead with the four ingredients above).
"Recipes" are not needed for these four ingredients: Use enough of an interesting honey to make the alcohol content of the mead you want. Use 1 pack of yeast /gallon. Select the yeast that will highlight the elements of the mead you want and which will best ferment in the conditions of your wine room. Use the best water you can find - not distilled or RO but spring water. And use the amount of nutrients that are needed for the volume of mead at the SG you have selected for the yeast you have chosen.
Dissolve one pound of honey to make 1 gallon and the SG will be 1.035 and the potential ABV will be 4.5%. Dissolve 2 lbs of honey to make 1 gallon and the SG will be 1.070 and the potential ABV will be 9%. Dissolve 3 lbs and the SG will be 1.105 and the potential ABV will be about 14%. Pick an interesting varietal honey - chestnut, raspberry, Tupelo, "pine" , avocado, sunflower, orange blossom, meadowfoam, and you will have an interesting mead. Pick a cocktail such as wild flower or clover and the flavors will be less interesting (IMO). Finish brut dry and you will have a dry mead. Finish brut dry, stabilize and back sweeten and you will have a sweeter mead. Finish brut dry and add about 20 gms of sugar /gallon and you will have a carbonated mead. BUT everything is just smoke and mirrors if you cannot make a good traditional mead.
