Cheap metal — what you are really buying

Metal, at the lowest possible cost

Buying a cheap metal set — usually built from ordinary sheet or from beer kegs never meant to be heated over a flame — goes against everything I think about this. And yet people use them, drink the result and live.

Output is comparable to copper or acid-resistant sets, the price is many times lower, and it still condenses better than glass. That, as far as I can see, is the whole list of advantages.

The serious drawback of a set made from ordinary sheet is that metal oxides can get into the distillate. They come off during the first several runs — anything from a few to a few dozen, depending on what the set was made of.

What speaks for it beyond the price per litre? We all have to die of something, and poisoning by those oxides depends on the person, will certainly not happen at once, and in many cases will not happen at all.