I have been thinking of how much mead I would need to start out with.  I would like to have 3-4 favorite recipes that all my friend like, that I initially sell.  They need to be tried and true.

Just for calculations purposes, lets say  want to have my mead for sell in 4 places, and each can do an average of 6 cases of mead/month.  24 cases a month or say 300 cases/year.

This means that if my brewing cycle is 6 mo, I need to produce 150 cases.  With 2.38 gallons/case we have 150*2.38 = 400 gallons brewing capacity.

This is a good estimate to get started.

So I need 100 gallons of each type, or 133, of I only have three samples.

Lets keep it easy, and use the 100 gallon estimate.

Then I can use two 55 gallon barrels to ferment for each of my three types of mead.

Add to my equipment list then, six 55 gallon barrels for primary fermentation! Or three 100 gallon containers.

So how much honey do I need?

14 lbs/5 gallons, so 400/5 * 14 = 1120 lbs of honey, or 93 gallons.  Lets round up to 100 gallons.

Local massachusetts honey is say 30.00 USD/gallon in bulk so 3000.00 bucks in honey!