If you get a good pear mead, definitely let me know the recipe. It's a hard one to do for some reason.

For flip tops, if you're looking for bottles, the "world market" stores sometimes get in sparkling french sodas and lemonade that are pretty decent. If you can get them late in the season about when they "expire" they're cheap sources of bottles that are tasty to drink, esp. in the summer. I bought a bunch of them a couple years ago. The labels come off pretty easy too, at least with the oxyclean soak I use (make sure to get dye/perfume free).