Copper Alembic Still. All Sizes. 2L (Without thermometer)

Old-fashoned, pretty to look at and it works.It is small - 2 litres as advertised -so you aren't going to make whiskey by the bathtub, but it works just fine.Some reviewers complain about its 'leakiness'.The lid on mine fits neatly on the pot. You want the outlet to run into the cooler, but ideally not to touch it because you get heat transfer.The vapour comes out of the retort vertically and falls into the cooler unit. It cools as it flows down the coil, so you need to avoid pools or puddles in the pipe.If steam/vapour leaks, you may have a puddle in one of the pipes, which will fill with vapour and overflow, but it's more likely you are doing the job wrong. Think about 'tears of wine' or 'legs', the refluxing of alcohol in the glass that condenses on the side and runs back down. That happens at room temperature.So you don't need to boil a mash to get alcohol off. The lighter, nastier alcohol ('heads') comes off at about 70 degrees C. By the time the temperature reaches 90 (10degrees shy of boiling) most of what comes off is water and heavy organics ('tails'). If you boil it, hot steam will come out, will refuse to fall into the condenser and disappear into the air. If it's bubbling, you've screwed up.It can be fiddly to set up and you have to watch it.Alcohol is flammable, my friends, so if you're planing to make booze, be careful on the second still. If you boil that, you risk a very nasty accident.A CO2 fire extinguisher might be a good idea.