* Mead and wine predate beer, because you can make both of those by accident. For mead, just dilute honey (Section 8.8) in water, and it’ll start to ferment when it’s colonized by yeast (if you don’t want to rely on wild yeast, Section 10.2.5 has instructions on how to farm your own). And alcohol occurs naturally in rotting fruit, which is the same process—but under human control—used to make wine.