OT: Lemoncello

Village Idiot

If you are like us, you have to trade some meaningless gift with your friends at Christmas time.  Usually, it's something homemade.  After going to Italy last month, I got the idea to make lemoncello.  Lemoncello is a popular alcoholic, sweet drink usually sipped after dinner.  I've never been into sweet drinks, but, in Italy, we learned to mix it with tonic water or club soda and it makes a really refreshing drink.

Why am I telling you this?  Lemoncello is easy to make, but it takes a month of sitting in a bottle, leeching out the lemon flavoring.  So, if you are looking for ideas to make your friends and/or family for Christmas, here is an idea.  Note that there is a little more than a month before Christmas.  Hence, the thread now.

The recipe I used is at this URL. 

One month ago.

Today, after bottling.

TUTTLE871

My old boss used to do this. Comes out great. That's a great idea for A Christmas Present. I have the same idea, but it's coming

TUTTLE871

Out in a different alcohol form. Sorry for the double post but my fat fingers can't type in iPhone.

Mighty_Quinn

Very nice VI! My family makes it in the spring time, right at the start of Lent actually, and it sits for the 40 days...ready for Easter.

travisstrick

VI, your link is broken.

Village Idiot

travisstrick said:

VI, your link is broken.

No, I think it's a server overload.  Try it again later.  I got an error message the first few times (because I was checking the link), then it came up.

burr_baby33

VI, this looks great.  I fell in love with lemoncello on our 1st trip to Italy.  Like Travis, I tried to get thru your link but failed...will try again.  Your labels are very nice.  I may be a copy cat.

fishlessman

been wanting to make that for along time, i like limoncello. no grain alcohol up here in newengland

Village Idiot

fishlessman said:

been wanting to make that for along time, i like limoncello. no grain alcohol up here in newengland

We're lucky in Texas. We can buy 190 proof Everclear.  I think I remember that the recipe on the link says you can use vodka, but you need to tweak the water dilution.

Hopefully, the link will come up again.

travisstrick

It just worked for me. God bless Texas. 

Village Idiot

burr_baby33 said:

VI, this looks great.  I fell in love with lemoncello on our 1st trip to Italy.  Like Travis, I tried to get thru your link but failed...will try again.  Your labels are very nice.  I may be a copy cat.

BB,

Thanks. The labels are Avery # 22820.  The lemon pictures are shamelessly stolen from some other internet site.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

bookmarked. Gracias again. 

travisstrick

This post has caused me to pour a lemonade and Tito's at 3pm. My bottle is signed by Tito so you can be jealous if you want. 

SmokeyPitt

Very cool idea- thanks for sharing.  I have some everclear that has been in my cabinet for 5 years (that and some watermelon cr@p are the only alcohol in my cabinet more than a few weeks old).   

Village Idiot

travisstrick said:

This post has caused me to pour a lemonade and Tito's at 3pm. My bottle is signed by Tito so you can be jealous if you want. 

VODKA?  We're talking Everclear here, Son.  Vodka is what we feed our infants to wash down their pabulum.

DonWW

We have done this before.  Turned out great.  So great that the next time we did the same recipe with oranges:  Orangecello.  Also fantastic. 

And, yes, travisstrick, just a wee bit jealous.  Aside from Imperial Russian Standard for sipping, Titos is the only vodka in da house.

Scott805

Anybody with the name Tito Beverage has to be in the liquor business.  Met him at the Austin City Limits Music Festival giving out Tito Margaritas!

Griffin

Very cool @Village_Idiot. Love the idea.

@travistrick - can I have 2 fingers of that Makers 40?

nolaegghead

methinks it's makers mark 46 - good stuff.

billyray

Griffin  I remember when I was a teenager and my grandpa wanted me to pour him 2 fingers of whiskey. It was the index finger and the pinky. )

smokesniffer

@VI I have been doing this for about a year. I make a bit different type, I use 2 bottles of Everclear, and 2 bottles of Vodka. Zest about 40 -50 lemons and 6-10 limes. Great stuff for sipping or I mix some in a margarita, ( which is going to happen as soon as I finish typing). Mind sharing how much club soda you mix in with it. 

Enjoy.

Village Idiot

smokesniffer said:

Mind sharing how much club soda you mix in with it. 

SS,  I can't tell you.  My wife had it last night and I was snarfing down rum.  But, knowing her, she probably put 3 drops of lemoncello in, and 2 quarts of tonic.  As for me, 2/3 lemoncello and 1/3 tonic would be a good start.

SMITTYtheSMOKER

While the wife likes her sweet Lemoncello, I'll take a swift shot of Grappa everytime.

Nice gift idea.

RAC

Will be trying this. Thanks for posting.

Doc_Eggerton

Excellent, Luigi.  I learned about this from the movie Under the Tuscan Sun, ah er, not that I ever watched that movie, ah, my wife told me about it. 
:-S

Botch

I finally got the link to connect; I'm copying/pasting the recipe here:

 

Overview

So, how do you make this wonderful stuff? The ingredients are as follows:

1 750 mL bottle of grain alcohol ( Everclear or similar, also known as rectified spirit--as long as it's potable, strong, and unflavored you'll be fine)
Zest of 8 lemons
Sugar
Water

Simple, yes? Oh, you'll also need a glass jar in which to keep the stuff. Be sure you have lots of spare room, as you'll add more liquid later. Mine is two liters, and works great.

You want to get the strongest alcohol you can get your hands on. Vodka, even the 100 proof stuff, isn't sufficient. In some states, such as Nevada, you can get 190-proof Everclear, which is 95% ethyl alcohol. Alas, California isn't one of them, so I'll make do with 151 proof (75.5% alcohol, which is still pretty stiff). You can as well, but go with the high-test if you get it. You'll dilute it down to something drinkable later; right now we need a strong but potable nonpolar solvent, and high-proof alcohol fits the bill. I understand an old catalog came with a disclaimer that Everclear was to be used "for the production of homemade cordials," or some such, which is exactly what you're doing here.

 

Botch here:  still not a very precise recipe, but you get the idea.  

SamFerrise

We make it with homemade Grappa which is Italian moonshine made from grape mash.

smokesniffer

@VI " My wife had it last night and I was snarfing down rum" )

Tjcoley

You can also make orangecello, which is also very nice. Very refreshing.

Z_Eggineer

I am guessing the stronger the alcohol, the more powerful the solvent, and less time needed to "infuse". Right?

Village Idiot

Z_Eggineer said:

I am guessing the stronger the alcohol, the more powerful the solvent, and less time needed to "infuse". Right?

Not sure about that.  Makes sense though.  It will affect how much water you need to dilute it.  We are lucky in Texas because we can buy 190 proof everclear.  So, the dilution is about 1:1 to bring it down to about 80 proof.