I made up my first batch of mead yesterday. I used 1 gallon of sourwood honey and used distilled water with the right salts and chalk etc to replicate Edinburgh water. Used white labs sweet mead yeast WLP720, goferm and fermaid-k. Did the no boil method to preserve the honey aromas. My OG was 1.115.
Well, that doesn't look too bad at all. Though I'm at a bit of a loss as to why you might want to replicate Edinburgh water ? More importantly, you got the "right" sweet mead yeast. I've not heard of any problems with that one, unlike the Wyeast sweet mead yeast which is a PITA !
I've heard good things of sourwood honey, but it's certainly not usually available here, unless it's under a different name.....
With that SG, well if you get a drop of 115 points, you'll have about 15.5% ABV (I don't know if it's a yeast what will go further than it's tolerance, which I understand is 15%)
Ok next time I go to aerate my mead I gotta remember to degass it. Wow it was a volcano and what a mess.
I know it's being pedantic, but I don't call it de-gassing at this stage, as the point of stirring/agitation isn't to remove the gas, that happens through pressure build up anyway, it's to get some air/O2 into the mix.
Your comment about the eruption suggests that you've already got this in a carboy type fermenter......... one of the reasons people often start the process in buckets, is to reduce the chance of the eruption/mess etc i.e. a 1 gallon batch in a 2 gallon bucket usually prevents that - though I like to take a bit of the ferment out (about a pint or so), then blitz it in a sanitised liquidiser and add it back in gently (actually I do that with some of the must before pitching the yeast as well).
If you just like to start your batch in a carboy, then it's often least hassle to put it in a sink first and stir gently, once the foam starts to rise, stop stirring until it's calmed down some and then repeat, until it's had a good aeration.
Finally, if you haven't already read it,
here's the link to the the Gotmead NewBee guide. It's worth the effort of reading it through as it's got a lot of helpful info for the newer mead maker.......
Good luck with your efforts, and keep us informed........