My advice would be to make more than one gallon. From experience, I have found the following:
-Most people taste their mead to early. Many don't like it. I can't tell you how many times I have offered to take mead off someone's hands because it had "mead funk" and they were SURE it was spoiled. It is not. Unless you have sulfur smell or something like that, don't worry, just keep it from air and light and let it evolve.
-Mead evolves over time...a LONG time. Do yourself a favor and hide some for 1, 2, 5 years down the road.
-Dry mead takes on a sweet character after aging. I have a black raspberry melomel which was absolutely astringent when it was under a year old. It tasted great with dark chocolate torte, but on its own would make you feel like it sucked all the spit right out of your mouth. It is now 8 years old and you would swear that I sweetened it. It is smooth, full bodied, and (sadly) down to one bottle. It may be one of my finest creations and it is almost gone.
-If you are making sweet styles try to stay balanced. The Chinese idea of yin and yang is what you are going for. If you have a sweet style you have to have some acidic properties to balance it out. Otherwise it will lack interest.
-Your honey matters. If it is a honey you would not eat on its own, don't use it...no matter how little you paid for it. Honey is the star of mead. Let it shine through. Any additions should compliment your honey, not overpower it.
-Ask questions! This is a long term project. If you are investing a year minimum, you want it to be worth the wait. There are many people who have tried different things. It is not shameful to take advantage of their experiences.
-For sweet wines or meads I prefer the natural method. Choose your yeast carefully as it will affect your residual sugar as well as your flavor profile. With the internet it is much easier to get specialty yeasts. In fact, there are places which buy yeast normally only available to vineyards and high volume purchasers and then split them into 5-gallon-batch size portions. They resell these yeasts to home winemakers. I have gotten Sauternes yeast from such places and it makes AWESOME desert wines and sweet meads. I used it for a peach Sauternes once and it gave a creamy character to the wine. So do your homework before you pitch your yeast.
Have fun with whatever you do. If you sterilize properly you will almost guarantee that whatever results you have will be good, even if they weren't what you were expecting.
Good luck to you and please post your final recipe and results.