I purchased two reasonably priced gallons of cider the other day. The cider itself may have been expensive, but they came in these nice, sturdy glass jugs. The cider is for a project I have in mind. I plan on seeing if I can purchase some yeast - Red Star Cotes des Blanc and Pasteur Champagne - two drilled bungs, and two double bubble airlocks and making myself some cider. The champagne yeast, which is very dry, shall go in the plainer of the cider, which will result in apple wine/champagne, where as the Cotes des Blanc shall go in the spicier or more flavorful cider. Since a gallon of cider will fill about four liter bottles, I plan on carbonating half of each cider (2 bottles each), and then spicing one sparkling and one still bottle from each batch. That, I think, will give me some good variety.
Cost: cider (and fermenters) - $14.50 Yeast, bungs, airlocks - $5.18 + $6.64 S&H = $11.82 Estimated cost of remaining liter bottles (which come with some tasty french lemonade in them) - $17.50
Total: ~ $38.14
Fairly inexpensive for a first try, so if I get a bottle explosion (I hope not, these are sturdy bottles) or fuck something up, then I'm not biting too much. According to the yeast/brewing supplies supplier, orders over $60 have free shipping. I shall wait until after christmas to purchase anything to see if I get money. If so, I might buy some other things.
I've decided that my first mead will be a hydromel, and my second a vanilla/smooth methyglin. This is based on my recent purchase of 20 high quality vanilla beans at $0.50 each. Shh :o