alembic has been much used figuratively, in the sense of a distillery(?).

1790 Burke Fr. Rev. 135 The hot spirit drawn out of the alembick of hell, which in France is now so furiously boiling. 1789 G. White Selborne (1853) II. xxix. 243 In heavy fogs+trees are perfect alembics. 1814 Scott Wav. I. ii. 17 The cool and procrastinating alembic of Dyer's Weekly Letter. 1856 G. Brimley Ess. 229 Passed through the alembic of a great poet's imagination.