A couple more thoughts -- I remember now that you don't boil the water/honey mix, just heat it. Also, I don't think the nutrient mentioned is absolutely required. I brewed beer many years ago before nutrients were a thing. You don't need them.

Also, you'll find that a lot of sites and people get very, very specific about ingredients, processes, and procedures. I tended to just throw stuff together and see what happened, and most of the time, it worked fine.

You want to avoid contamination by vinegar producing bacteria. The bad bacteria doesn't just make your brew taste like cheap salad dressing, it actually consumes your alcohol.

"Vinegar is the product of a two-stage fermentation. In the first stage, yeast convert sugars into ethanol anaerobically, while in the second ethanol is oxidized to acetic (ethanoic) acid aerobically by bacteria of the genera Acetobacter and Gluconobacter." Source

So as long as you don't get attacked by such bacteria, you'll get alcohol. I've broken most golden rules of brewing cleanliness and have never once had a bad batch. That doesn't mean it always tasted grand.

Finally, one more thought on distillation. One reason it attracts me, aside from creating vodka that is, is because you can make your booze using virtually any source of sugar. Sugar cane, potatoes, corn, rice, anything, because you're going to boil off the pure alcohol. Honey, malted barley, and grapes are generally expensive compared to potatoes and sugar.