LimoncelloQuest

So far in my limoncello-making career I’ve made very few batches that would qualify as unmitigated train wrecks. This is just one such batch. I read somewhere on the internet that adding the juice of the lemons to the batch along with the zest creates a nice flavor. I doubted it but like everything else I tried it.

YUCK. I can’t even rate it on the normal scale. It has such an overpowering tartness that it almost can’t be endured. Again, this was a fairly predictable outcome but I wanted to try it and now I have a batch of something, not limoncello, that I’ll have to use as some kind of disinfectant.

Just a site update, I’ve significantly expanded the page on recipes using lemon juice. If you have any additions, please email them to me. Enjoy!

I regularly surf the web in search of ideas for better limoncello recipes and I wandered onto this site where I found the idea for putting pineapple into the infusion. The author of the blog was kind enough to send me the recipe which I modified in minor ways to fit my normal limoncello making routine. Here is the recipe I used:

Liquor: Two bottles of 151 Proof Everclear
Liquor filtration: 5x
Lemons: 18 scrubbed Organic lemons plus 1/3 of a ripe pineapple, cut into chunks
Days peels and liquor rested: 35
Simple Syrup – Cups Sugar: 3.5, Cups Water: 5
Days syrup rested with infusion: 5
Final filtration: 4x

Even though I know this liquor contains pineapple I have a hard time detecting the flavor in the finished product. I’d bet that no one could figure it out if you didn’t tell them. The effect on the flavor is exactly what I was told, it makes it a slightly sweeter more “gum droppy” flavor. It tastes more like candy than normal limoncello but it’s otherwise hard to pinpoint the difference in flavor. I think it will be a crowd pleaser though I’d like to use a more ripe pineapple next time. Actually, the entire batch is almost gone already (within a couple weeks) which is rare even around my house.

As an aside, I just added a new page to the site that suggests uses for the lemon juice that the limoncello making process produces. Please email me any additions you may have and I’ll include them.

I ran out of grain alcohol but wanted to run a test between organic and non-organic lemons. I have always heard that non-organic lemons are better for making Limoncello and that makes sense but they are expensive and very hard to find so I wanted to test it.

I tried to treat the two batches as equally as possible. The organic lemons were roughly half the size of the non-organic lemons so I used about twice as many to produce the same quantity of zest. I used half a cup less sugar than normal in both batches because Vodka is much smoother than grain alcohol and I thought that would produce a more balanced Limoncello. Indeed, I didn’t miss the extra sugar at all.

Batch #7:
Liquor: Two bottles of 100 Proof Smirnoff Vodka
Liquor filtration: 5x
Lemons: 23 Organic, scrubbed
Days peels and liquor rested: 40
Simple Syrup – Cups Sugar: 3.5, Cups Water: 5
Days syrup rested with infusion: 0
Final filtration: 4x

Due to the use of vodka rather than grain alcohol, the flavor of the batch is very smooth. It has fewer chemical flavors than most other batches I’ve made. There is a strong lemon flavor and an off flavor that strikes me as rotten lemon, but isn’t really bad and doesn’t reduce my enjoyment of the liquor. The lemons were just barely starting to get soft when I used them so I’m sure that’s where the off flavor originated. If you use organic lemons, make sure to zest them the same day you get them home because they go bad ridiculously fast.

Batch #8:
Liquor: Two bottles of 100 Proof Smirnoff Vodka
Liquor filtration: 5x
Lemons: 15 Non-Organic, waxed, scrubbed
Days peels and liquor rested: 40
Simple Syrup – Cups Sugar: 3.5, Cups Water: 5
Days syrup rested with infusion: 0
Final filtration: 4x

One of the first things I noticed when doing the final filtration is that using non-organic lemons makes it much harder to filter the liquor. This is probably because of the wax on non-organic lemons, I think it gums up the filter. This is a huge advantage of using organic lemons because final filtration is my least favorite aspect of making Limoncello.

You’ll notice that the flavor graph shows this one as rougher than batch #7 even though they were exactly the same except for the test variable. It is smoother than normal because it contains vodka but not as smooth as the organic lemons. This taught me something interesting, that the contaminants in non-organic lemons apparently introduce roughness to the flavor. This actually makes sense since contaminants in the liquor make the flavor rough as well.

There are also off flavors that seem chemical in nature. The off flavors in batch #7 were more natural and it had a more lemony flavor overall. I think there are enough benefits to work almost exclusively with organic lemons moving forward.

I set aside one bottle each from my first two batches so I could see what happens when you let them rest for a long time. Both of these rested for over 6 months in my basement and then I put them in the freezer for a while and tasted them again. There is no question that resting the limoncello smooths out the flavor. These two batches are nearly indistinguishable at this point. They are both very sweet and syrupy, with a little alcohol heat in the flavor. Neither has the alcohol “roar” that I noted in the initial review of the first batch.

If I had to identify a difference between them, I’d say that the first batch has many more lemony notes on the finish than the second batch. I don’t know why that would be but it definitely leaves a lemon oil finish in your mouth. Interestingly, the chemical flavors have also died down. These two batches won’t make it to the one year mark (they’re already frozen, I might as well finish them off…) but the effects of aging are clearly positive. I’ve made quite a bit of limoncello this year so I’ll be surprised if at least some of the batches don’t make to a year old. When they do I’ll post the results but I can predict them already in one word, smoother.

#6 meant to be my best to date, liquor filtered 6x and rested with zest for 90 days. Back to usual sugar concentration. Good light color and smell. Nice lemony flavor, more so than batch #4 and though it’s quite a bit sweeter it’s still relatively balanced. Picks are that it’s still a little syrupy sweet and there are off flavors probably associated with the non-organic lemons used.

Liquor: Two 750ml bottles of Everclear 151
Liquor filtration: 6x
Lemons: 17 Non-organic, waxed and scrubbed
Days peels and liquor rested: 90
Simple Syrup – Cups Sugar: 4, Cups Water: 5
Days syrup rested with infusion: 30
Final filtration: 4x

For batch #5, I forgot to filter the liquor so I know this will be on the rough side. I consider it almost a wasted batch if I don’t filter the liquor because the flavor is so much harsher than filtered batches. The color is on the darker side as my batches go, closer to some mass-produced versions I’ve seen. The flavor is first very sweet and lemony but quickly turns to the unfiltered Everclear punch that contorts your face. Since I’ve discovered the difference in smoothness due to filtering it’s almost unforgivably rough tasting. Unless I forget I’ll never use unfiltered Everclear again and this is a lesson that should help.

Liquor: Two 750ml bottles of Everclear 151
Liquor filtration: None
Lemons: 17 Non-organic, waxed and scrubbed
Days peels and liquor rested: 66
Simple Syrup – Cups Sugar: 4, Cups Water: 5
Days syrup rested with infusion: 30
Final filtration: 4x

I haven’t had a batch to post about in a while and now I have several. Here is the first of the new crop:

Liquor: Two 750ml bottles of Everclear 151
Liquor filtration: 5x
Lemons: 17 Non-organic, waxed and scrubbed
Days peels and liquor rested: 63
Simple Syrup – Cups Sugar: 3, Cups Water: 5
Days syrup rested with infusion: 30
Final filtration: 4x

The big difference in this batch was the use of less sugar, I used one cup less than normal to see if I could reduce the overly sweet taste of my standard recipe. The smell and color of the finished product looked good, perhaps a bit lighter yellow than normal. The sugar reduction worked, it doesn’t taste sweet now. However, the alcohol is much more apparent in the flavor now. A one cup reduction may have been too much. The next time I’ll try a 1/2 cup reduction. The flavor seems lighter with less sugar, it has some redeeming qualities there but overall it’s just too harsh. It will take a long time in the cellar to make this batch smooth.

I started two new batches this week to test whether using organic lemons adds to the flavor or quality of the Limoncello. I have absolutely no doubt that it reduces toxins in the finished product since it’s the outside of the lemon that is used in making the Limoncello. However, I’ve heard it said that using organic lemons produces a much greater lemon flavor so I wanted to put that claim to the test. The differences in the lemons themselves are obvious from the start. The organic lemons were literally about half the size of the normal ones and they had more blemishes on the surface as you can see from the photos. The first picture shows the organic lemons. As a result of the smaller size, I used 23 organic lemons and 15 normal lemons to get roughly the same quantity of zest.

I added the zest to two separate containers filled with 100 proof Smirnoff vodka that I filtered 5 times. You can tell that the organic lemons are producing a much darker colored infusion after only a couple days. The normal lemon infusion looks like they injected the lemons with chartreuse by comparison, pretty amazing difference. These two are batches 7 and 8, I’ll keep you updated on their progress.

I made this test batch using the zest of 10 oranges and otherwise the same methodology as the lime-infused batch, 3 weeks infusion with a bottle of 100 proof Smirnoff vodka filtered four times and simple syrup with 2.5 cups water and 2 cups sugar. This batch was easy to distinguish from Limoncello from the color alone. It wasn’t bright orange but it was orange enough to tell.

It had a nice aroma of orange as well but the flavor didn’t pan out nearly as well as the lime batch. It wasn’t nearly as bad as the batch I made with orange last year, but it isn’t great. It’s overly sweet (my fault) and the orange flavor tastes like orange peel rather than oranges. This makes perfect sense but I don’t know why lemons and limes don’t seem to have the same issue. It may be the type of oranges I’m using, I’m not sure. I did use organic oranges, which should have been better than normal ones. Not a successful test. If anyone has an idea why, let me know.