Reddit mentions of The Complete Guide to Making Mead: The Ingredients, Equipment, Processes, and Recipes for Crafting Honey Wine

I highly recommend this book by Steve Piatz, It’s a more modern take on mead making, and a lot more friendly to folks working out the basics. Ken’s book is great for inspiration!

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Making-Mead-Ingredients/dp/0760345643/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?crid=310SBD34GYQXY&keywords=steve+piatz&qid=1557926064&s=gateway&sprefix=Steve+pia%2Caps%2C156&sr=8-1-fkmrnull

>How do you get your ingredients and what’s the most important part about them?

I look to source ingredients locally, when possible. Farmer's market, local co-op, etc. Specialty ingredients such as certain honey varietals that are regionally specific (tupelo, meadowfoam, mesquite, orange blossom, etc.) are typically ordered online after reading a fair number of reviews to get a sense of what I'm buying. Penzey's (online) is my go-to for spices. Quality is far-and-away the top priority when sourcing ingredients. It shows in the final product. Compromise in this area will cap the quality of your final product.

>What was the most helpful source of information at the beginning?

Honestly, the r/mead wiki is pretty damn helpful. I also recommend The Compleat Meadmaker and The Complete Guide to Making Mead. These are the two that got me started, and they are both quality publications.

>What equipment do you have/ how long have you used it?

Oh god. I just moved and realized how much equipment I actually have. It's...probably excessive.

2 x 5-gal primary buckets
2 x 2-gal primary buckets
1 x bottling bucket
8 x 1-gal glass jugs/carboys
5 x 3-gal glass carboys
2 x 5-gal better bottles
1 x 6.5-gal better bottle
1 x 6.5-gal glass carboy
Requisite number of air locks, bungs, stoppers, etc.
Hydrometer
Refractometer
Auto-siphon
Silicone tubing (replaced all vinyl tubing)
Handheld bottle capper (for crown caps)
Portuguese floor corker
Bottle tree
*Buon Vino mini-jet filtration system

I'm sure there more that I'm forgetting, but this gives the general sense.

I have this one and it's very good:

https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Making-Mead-Ingredients/dp/0760345643/ref=sr_1_4

Ken Schramm's book is one of the best and has already been linked to, but I'll throw another link below. Like /u/StormBeforeDawn said, no book is the most up-to-date, but frankly that's not what he needs. He needs to get the basic process down, and then be ready to do research in books and various places online to learn more. Schramm's book is widely considered the best place to start.

Steve Piatz's book is good and worth getting. It has a lot of information on diagnosing weird smells/tastes, and has the best pictures around. It is quite frankly the prettiest book in terms of pictures, layout, and typesetting. That said, I think he could have served novices better in some of the process descriptions around things like aeration and degassing (nothing that can't be figured out with resources here on the reddit wiki, GotMead.com, or YouTube videos).

Lastly, and maybe my first recommendation behind Schramm's book, Are Robert Ratliff's two books The Big Book of Mead Recipes and Let There Be Melomels. These last two are recipe books. Once you understand the basic process of making mead (and proper sanitization), it's simply a matter of getting down to it and making batch after batch, experimenting and enjoying the product. Ratliff's books are helpful in that they give you collections of tested and proven recipes that produce enjoyable finished products.

1. The Compleat Meadmaker (Schramm): https://amzn.to/2QS9yiv
   
2. Big Book of Mead Recipes (Ratliff): https://amzn.to/2DdxhBJ
   
3. Let There be Melomels (Ratliff): https://amzn.to/2OhN0Gu
   
4. The Complete Guide to Making Mead (Piatz): https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Making-Mead-Ingredients/dp/0760345643
   
   So I'd suggest getting him the first two books. I highly recommend both of Ratliff's books, not as introductions to making meads, but as great recipe books to kickstart your imagination.