Category Archives for "Blog"

Lime-cello Test

Blog

So I wanted to see how it would taste if I infused my liquor with other fruit flavors. The most obvious place to start was limes. So, I made a half batch to test using the zest of 10 limes infused into a bottle of 100 proof Smirnoff vodka. I filtered the vodka four times before infusing with the zest. I let the mixture infused for about three weeks, until the zest started to look pale. I then added a simple syrup mixture of 2.5 cups of water and 2 cups of sugar. I filtered, bottled and let that mixture rest for another week.

I didn’t expect this to work well because I had tried it with oranges last year and that batch was an atrocity. This, however, worked MUCH better than I ever expected. The color of the finished liquor was hard to tell from the Limoncello in most lighting conditions but the aroma was distinctly lime. The flavor was too. I made this batch with vodka because grain alcohol is hard to come by in my state and I’m fresh out right now. Usually the benefit of the grain alcohol is that it does a better job of extracting the flavor of the zest during infusion.

This batch had plenty of lime flavor though, and though it was a bit too sweet, the overall taste was absolutely sublime. I took a bottle of it to a party at a friend’s house (which was a bold move since I hadn’t tasted it yet) and everyone liked it. You could use it to make a great mojito or other drink that requires lime but it’s excellent straight up from the freezer.

Batch #3 Split Test

Blog

This test is as scientific as I’m able to conduct at home. I used the exact same materials, time, lemons, etc. for both halves of one batch. The only difference was filtering the liquor. I wanted to see what kind of difference, if any, liquor filtration has on the final product. Here are the ingredients for the whole experiment.

Liquor: Two 750ml bottles of Everclear 151

Liquor filtration: Varies

Lemons: 17 Non-organic, waxed and scrubbed

Days peels and liquor rested: 55

Simple Syrup – Cups Sugar: 4, Cups Water: 5

Days syrup rested with infusion: 48

Final filtration: 4x

Just after zesting the lemons, I divided the zest into two even halves and put each half into an identical glass jar. I then poured one unfiltered bottle of grain alcohol in one jar and the other jar received an identical bottle of alcohol but after 4 filtrations in the Brita filtering pitcher. Everything else was identical down to the amount of time I waited to taste them and the temperature of the Limoncello at tasting.

The results for the first, unfiltered, half are:

As you can see, it’s fairly rough stuff. It’s pretty sweet, which offsets the harshness in the flavor somewhat but it has a lot of heat and is a very rough Limoncello. Drinkable but not great.

Here are the results of the second half of the batch:

As you can clearly see, the results were very different this time. The smoothness of this half of the batch was a world of difference from the unfiltered half. Compared to this half, the unfiltered half feels like getting punched in the throat. This one is smooth and silky with a little bit of heat and both halves had some off flavors on the finish that were probably due to the fact that I couldn’t use organic lemons and/or didn’t scrub them hard enough. Because of the smoothness, the sweetness of the Limoncello is more apparent which is why I rated this one as more sweet despite the fact that the two halves contain exactly the same amount of sugar.

With this direct comparison under my belt, I can tell you with absolutely no reservations that filtering the liquor makes a HUGE difference in the smoothness of the final product. Since this batch was created I’ve made a couple others and forgotten to filter the liquor. I’m now acutely regretting that. I strongly recommend that you filter the liquor before the infusion with the lemon zest. I plan future tests to see where the point of diminishing returns is on filtration. Less filtration is faster but if I could double the smoothness by filtering the liquor 8 times, I’d do it. It’s still much faster than letting the finished Limoncello rest for a year or two, which is what I’ll need to do with the unfiltered half.

Batch #2 Results

Blog

Because it was made with few changes from the first batch, the second turned out similar. Here are the stats on the second batch:

Liquor: Two 750ml bottles of Everclear 151

Liquor filtration: 2x

Lemons: 17 Non-organic, waxed and scrubbed

Days peels and liquor rested: 49

Simple Syrup – Cups Sugar: 4, Cups Water: 5

Days syrup rested with infusion: 44

Final filtration: 4x

As you can see, the only two differences were that the liquor was filtered an extra time and the final mixture rested longer before the final filtration. The result was a batch that was substantially similar in all regards to the first batch except it was slightly smoother. This could be the result of either the longer resting period or the extra filtration of the liquor or both. I’ll have to separate the two in the future to determine what is having the larger impact. Here is the flavor graph from batch #2: