Honey Ale/Mead

The nettle beer bubbling away on the table inspired me to wonder what other fruit/plant 'beers' we could try. I haven't found and other ideas to try yet, but I came upon mead several times during my search. We tried mead a couple of years ago. We still have it (out of scientific interest) although it was frankly one of the most unpleasant tasting things I have ever tried. It felt like it was ripping the inside of your throat out as cheap whisky does, but then left a much more unpleasant after taste. After two and a half years it has 'mellowed' so that some of the throat ripping sensation is gone, but there is still a little burning and an unpleasant taste that isn't at all remenicent of honey as mead is meant to be.
I am thinking of giving another batch a go as so many people seem to find it a very pleasant drink. 

However before that I fancied trying a honey ale (or maybe it is a mead as it doesn't have any grain in it...) which being lower alcohol should be ready to drink sooner and perhaps has less scope to go wrong... perhaps... we shall see.

Makes approx 4.5 litres

1 gallon fermenting container (with airlock preferably)
400g honey
20g hops (I am using Willamette - they are a bit old)
1 lemon (zest and juice)
1tsp yeast (i used Safale us-05 dry ale yeast as that is what we happened to have - but some people use bread yeast)

25g of sugar for priming (adding the fizz)

Approx 1.5 litres boiled and cooled water

3 litres of boiling water

Boil 1 litre if water and let it cool down somewhat (maybe below 70C), dissolve the honey in it and put in fermenting vessel. The boiling it before hand is to sterilise it.
Boil 3 litres of water and add the lemon zest and 15g of hops, boil for 30 mins

Turn off the heat and add the remaining hops, stir and leave for 1 min
Strain (through a sieve is fine - or a cloth) in to the fermenting container and discard hops and lemon zest
Top up container to to 1 gallon (4.5 litres) with water you have boiled and cooled (should be a few inches from the top of the container)
When cool add the lemon juice and yeast
Leave until fermentation is complete 

Syphon in to a clean container and add 25g of sugar dissolved in a little boiling water

Bottle and leave for a few days for fizz to develop before sampling. 

According to mead buffs 3oz of honey in 1 gallon gives 1% alcohol, so 400g (14oz) should be between 4 and 5%. 

My original gravity reading was 1022 which seems quite low - it is hard to get the liquid out of the demi john to try the reading again so I will just leave and see what happens.

I will update shortly...