There went that plan....

[Jericurl]

I had it all planned out.

I bought ten lbs of cheap honey from Sam's Club and was going to make a 1 gallon batch of BOMM. I've never tasted mead before and wanted to try it out before committing to a large batch. (If I like it, I'll use my tax return to drop serious money on several different varieties of honey)

So I went online, bought my nutrient additions and the Wyeast 1388. I thought the yeast was a little pricey, but figured it was a large package of dry yeast.
Came in the mail yesterday. It's a single use pouch that contains 1 billion yeast cells!
I'm guessing I can't use that for a 1 gallon batch.

I really don't want to go back to the store and buy yet more honey.
Could I make a 3 gallon batch with ten pounds and make up the difference with sugar?
Would that throw the whole recipe completely off and lengthen the time before I can drink it?

 

[MarshmallowBlue]

10 lbs is quite enough for a 3 gallon batch. That Belgian yeast goes up to like 12-13% right? You should be fine. No sugar needed.

I haven't done BOMM specifically, but if you keep your honey per gallon Less than 2.5lbs per gallon it does reduce aging time significantly.

You can also propagate that Wyeast pack before pitch into several different starters and save them in the fridge if you want to save some money.

 

[Jericurl]

Yes, I believe it tops out around 12%.

It's settled then. I will add 7.5 lbs of honey and see where that puts my hydrometer.
I've noted with wine that if I aim for a finished alcohol percentage around 10% it clears and is drinkable much sooner than 13-14% so I'll keep that in mind with this.