Can I freeze the brew that I make, and get pure alcohol?

You actually are correct, to a point. Your entire argument is false, but the premises are mostly true.

So, basically, if you have mead which is somewhere in the 10-20% range to be general, you can indeed put this in a freezer. The solid that forms will be largely water, much more than 90% water. Some alcohol molecules may simply become trapped in the ice, but mostly it will be water that freezes. You simply discard this. What is left will be higher in alcohol. Repeat the process, and you will get to a point where the mead will not freeze anymore.

Have you ever put a bottle of vodka in a freezer? You know it gets a little bit thicker, but doesn't freeze. The whole thing stays liquid.

With this method, which is called freeze distillation, you can achieve around 30% alcohol (by volume). Since vodka doesn't freeze at 40%, you would never be able to achieve pure alcohol (100%abv, or 96% abv as ethanol is able to pull water out of the air until it is 96%abv).

Also, the yeast stop fermenting when a) there is no more sugar or b) there is too much alcohol. By freeze distilling to 30%, the yeast would be unable to convert any more sugar into alcohol as they are all dead. They sort of drank themselves to death, so to speak.

You should filter the mead, bottle it, then freeze it. You can simply pour the liquid off into a decanter, let the frozen part melt, dump it, resanitize and repeat.

Gee, I didn't know that Stephen Colbert was running for president of New Zealand, where freeze distillation was legal. Suggestions: Remove some of the yeast to make a yeast culture before freezing. Freeze a skimmer along with your mead so that it does not melt the ice you skim off. Don't count on the yeast raising the alcohol content of what you've distilled; yeast is limited by how much alcohol it can tolerate. Finally, learn to appreciate mead for what it is before you foul it up by distillation.

Not enough alcohol to prevent freezing. The alcohol will be disbursed throughout the beer. With a 5 - 8% alcohol level, the whole thing will freeze.

The principle is sound, you might have to experiment with temperature.The alcohol and water may freeze together as a mixture- you may have to freeze the lot solid and then let it partially thaw. What drips out will be higher in alcohol. The trouble is, its hard to get this process to mimic reflux distillation, rather than simple distillation.

The freezing may kill the yeast - but its a tough organsism.

Looks like you can freeze it and the alcohol itself will stay in tact.

In comment #10 I describe "jacking," where the product is concentrated through partial freezing. (Only the water freezes, so the alcohol remains behind.) This is how apple jack is made, but you could do it with any alcoholic beverage. One big advantage is that it's legal.

Here's the link that talks more about the entire process.

i have seen on youtube i think, where someone froze their beer, chopped it fine in a food processor or something, and put it in a salad spinner and spun it to separate out the alcohol...

don't know how accurate that would be, but supposedly it works

the other option is to do what they used to do, put the mead in your case, in a bucket and put it in the freezer... the ice will generally start forming on the top 1st... and will be almost pure water, since ice forces impurites out when freezing. you just periodically have to skim the layer of ice off the top... and don't let the whole bucket get to a freezing temp, or the whole thing will freeze, so you would be pulling this bucket out and letting it warm up again and again... VERY long.

they did this in the colonial days with cider, in the late fall, when it would freeze overnight, but then warm up a little in the day.

Yes you can!

The alcohol doesn't freeze, so just keep taking the ice out.

Our ForeFathers used to get more kick out of their Hard Cider that way. They used to call it "Apple Jack".

Yeah mate, I tried this, the wole thig DOES freeze, but it you watch it as it defrosts the first quarter to thrid to unfreeze has a significantly higher gravity (proof).

Freeze it in a pan then crush it up and let it melt, seems to work better than leaving it in just one block, good luck!