Hello, I have made several batches of mead and I really enjoyed it. How much of a difference is there with mead vs cider?
In regards to using dedicated equipment, if your cleaning and sanitizing practises are good it shouldn’t be a concern. Since it is a yeast not a bacteria, even if you don’t perfectly sanitize your equipment it will usually get massively out-competed by the yeasts you pitch in future batches since those cell counts are much much higher. The best thing you can do with brewing is taking good notes of every batch. That way you can see if your beers are finishing lower than expected.