Ok, since your new to mead (pardon if things are redundent to what you know but I am going to treat this as if you were a noob, sorry) here are somethings to keep in mind.
Usually people use a ratio of about 3-1 maximum. That is 3 pounds of honey per 1 gallon, so in a 5 gallon that is 15 pounds maximum. That is a sweet mead. Using Champaign yeast will work but you WILL end up with a high alcohol content. Most normal wine yeasts will ferment to about 15% ABV. Champaign yeast may go as high as 22%, provided there is enough sugar. By your listing 9 pounds for a 1 gallon may be a bit off. To give you an idea volume wise 12 pounds is 1 gallon of honey, aproximately. So what you have is about 3/4 a gallon of honey in 1 gallon of water. If your size of carboy is 1 gallon as pictured above then your volumes are not correct. If it is a 3 gallon carboy then it looks about right. You may want to thin out the honey ratio with more water, like 1/2 a gallon at least but no more than 3/4 a gallon or so.
Here are some impressions:
Honey: Aforementiond quanity issue. You did not mention what type of honey you used. The type of honey can vastly affect the taste of mead. An old Chef saying is, "A Chef is only as good as his ingredients." Same is true with brewing. For mead a good high quality honey is best. What denotes high quality here is, oddly enough, as little as processing as possible. Raw unfiltered honey of a good variety. The variety can be clover or wildflower, the two most common honey types or they could be Orange Blossum, Buckwheat, Raspberry, or any other description. But if there isn't a description of what type of honey may not be of good quality, or at the least an amature bee keeper. Many of us like to get the honey strait from the bee keeper, if we can, and heated up as little as possible. Often times this means that we are dealing with partially crystalized honey. No problem, just some warm water and it disolves fine. I heard one brewer that uses honey that is already rock hard and chips what he needs out of his storage bucket. Other things to consider with honey is scent and color. But that is a bit further out, on the end of past a beginer. If you buy unfiltered honey from your local whole foods store it will be fine, or a farmer's market. It will be more expensive but still be tasty. Oh, also, wildflower honeys do vary. What the clasification of wildflower is when the bees do not have enough nector from one source they go for many sources in the area and it gets mixed in the end product. Still good honey but varies from batch to batch and area to area, so you don't know exactly what your getting. Your best tools for testing honey you were born with. Scent, color, and taste. If you like the honey when you smell it and taste it and the color of the honey is good, not sickly or anything then you are probably good. Sometimes you can avoid off flavors with this.
Yeast: It is easy to go for a "Sweet Mead" yeast. And then expect it to actually BE sweet when done. I would avoid the "Sweet Mead" yeast listings as well as the liquid yeasts. Many wine yeasts will do. The best ones that I have found have been Lavin D-47 or Lavin 71b. Both can be found at your local brew store. Something to pay attention to on the yeast. Look for temp tollerance or a tempature range and if you can find any charts on what the notes of the yeast do then you will be doing fine. Try to match the notes with what you are looking for in a mead. Floral and fruit notes go well together. Some people have made perfectly good mead from bread yeast. But it is difficult to make a great mead with it. So when brewing, yeast choice is always a consideration. Remember "A Chef is only as good as ingredients" The best way to treat the yeast is to warm it up in room temp water with a little fruit juice or some of us like to use a honey water mixture and let it sit for about 15 min and foam up a bit to both get the yeast going and started and to make sure that you are dealing with live yeast.
Water: Water you list is ok. I personally use some locally produced mineral water from my home drinking supply. I am in Colorado so that is actually Eldorado water. Some use Tap water and test the mineral balance, some use many other types of water. Something to keep in mind here if you don't think that at least some consideration of water is important: Your mead is mostly water, like at least 70%. If you have water that doesn't taste good to you or has off flavors then your mead may not have it.
Nutrients: You have a really good mix of nutrients here. I also use yeast nutrient and energizer, 1 tablespoon each for a 5 gal batch. Also your choice of yeast may increase the amount you use, research the yeast a bit but mostly the amounts you have are great. The mead may stall out if the yeasties are not fed some sort of nutrients. Some use rasins but SOMEthing must be put in for a good mead.
Adjunctions: Spices- Less is more, you will never need more spices than a teaspoon of anything in a 5 gal batch. For a very clover mead you also don't need more than 3-4 whole cloves for a 5 gal batch. Be very careful. Fruit- Secondary is best to keep the fruit flavor and the scent, but some like it in primary. If you do it in the primary then the flavor will not be incredibly strong or like the fruit, there are many schools of though here. My advice is take a look at as many recipies as you can. Make your own judgements. Also, in some cases keep an eye on the acidity of your must, it may affect the yeast if the fruit is in the primary.
Clarifiers- Sometimes Sparkloid or other clarifyer is neccessary. Also for fruit batchs I always treat the fruit/fruit juice to pectic enzyme. It helps clear it up.
Oaking- Mead is best if oaked for a bit on some oak chips or cubes. For fruit batches I suggest lightly toasted american oak. More robust flavors I suggest medium toasted oak. But it smooths out the flavors if you put in 1 oz for a 1-5 gal batch for a couple of weeks to a month. It varies. But it helps for a smoother aging.
Aging- You will need to age your mead anywhere from 6 months to a year after you bottle or after it is clear for bulk aging. If you don't age even a little then you may be very disapointed in the flavor.
Sorry for the long post. Doubless some will post prior to mine before I am completed with it. By the way, that color in your pict is beautiful for a mead that is just put together. It is supposed to be that nice carmel color. That is your yeast and the color of the honey shining. Until the final stages it will vary on cloudyness. Once the bubbling slows down to about one bubble in a minute then you are best to rack it. It speeds up the clearing if you rack it when there are some lees to rack off of too.
Good luck,
Matrix
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