In Email Alchemy we delve into the intricacies of self-hosting email services. Acknowledging the dominance of major providers like Google, Microsoft, and Apple, we embark on constructing a self-hosted email solution, driven by the desire to avoid reliance on specific ecosystems and confronted by the challenges of successfully delivering email to the major platforms. The aim was to build a server that reliably delivers emails to major providers, bypassing spam filters, supporting popular Mail User Agents, and using open-source software. Key objectives include stability, hosting, operating system choice, and security, with an emphasis on reproducibility and redeployment capability.