Yeast for 1st Mead?

I'm about to make my first mead. I have 16 lbs of raw unfiltered freshly spun honey. I think I want to use a yeast that will allow this to finish kinda sweet without having to backsweeten. Is this the way to go. What is the best yeast to use?

I'm also doing my first mead and I used White labs sweet mead/wine yeast WLP720. It comes wet (in a tube) so you don't have to rehydrate, ferments to 15%, and I am told is selective in the sugars it digests so it leaves some in the mead to provide a sweet finish. Sorry I haven't made any before so I can't tell you how it worked, but it reads like what you say you want.

You can certainly use a yeast that will leave it with some residual sugar. The Wyeast sweet mead yeast and White labs sweet mead yeast can both be finicky and stick. My preference would be 71B, D47, Cote des Blancs (which will all get to 14% ABV). You can also use Montrachet (about 13%) or even a good ale yeast like Nottingham (12-13%). If you use the 14% ABV yeast, a starting gravity of about 1.115 (which would be about 16 pounds in 5 gallons) will leave it semi-sweet, and if you want it sweeter, you can add a little more honey to taste later.

If I had to pick one that is low maintenance, and easy to use for mead, it would be 71B.

Medsen