Developing a Limoncello Liqueur Recipe

STEP 1: Browsing the Internet for Recipes

I tackled this task by first going onto Google and YouTube (the two largest search engines in the world) and finding as many limoncello liqueur recipe videos as I could. After two hours of searching the web, I realised that making limoncello is a fairly straightforward process. Most recipes online have the same set of ingredients. None of the recipes I found had any “magic” ingredient or step that made their limoncello liqueur recipe different from the dozens of recipes already out on the web.

The ingredients in a limoncello are lemon peels, 96% neutral grain spirit, water, and white sugar. That’s it. I did see some people squeezing a little bit of lemon juice into their limoncellos, but for the most part, people seem to only use the lemon peel in their recipes. Something interesting I discovered is that no lemons are distilled in making this liqueur. Lemons peels are simply steeped for some time in spirit, allowing the spirit to extract the colour and flavour from the peels.

STEP 2: My Lemon Game Plan

I wrote up a proposed plan of action for developing my recipe. So I planned to make four 500mL samples. The first sample would have “x” grams of lemon peels steeped in 500mL of 96% neutral grain spirit (NGS). The second sample would have “x/2” the amount of lemon peels steeped in 500mL of spirit. The halving of the peels was to test what amount of lemon peels was needed to produce a nice lemon flavour, without it being too overpowering or too weak in flavour. I also wanted to see if half the amount of peels steeped for a longer period would give us a comparable flavour profile to having more peels steeped for a shorter length of time.

For the third sample, I wanted to see what would happen if I added lemon juice to the mixtures. I steeped “x” grams of lemon peels in 500mL of NGS and also added in the juice of those lemons as well. In the fourth sample, I halved the amount of lemon peels and lemon juice used, to see if that would still produce a nice tasting limoncello.

Although I saw very few people adding lemon juice to their limoncellos, I noticed that most of the people who had posted recipes online were home enthusiasts who were making small volumes of limoncello for their personal consumption only. However, at our distillery, we were hoping to make a big batch of limoncello (closer to 100L), which would take a lot more lemons to make. While a home enthusiast can easily use the juice of the peeled lemons to make lemonade or a lemon cake, it is a much bigger headache when there are hundreds of peeled lemons to deal with. I thought it would be ideal if we could use the lemon juice in our limoncello liqueur recipe since we wouldn’t have to figure out what else to do with the peeled lemons.

STEP 3: Buying the Ingredients

I went to the grocery store and purchased 16 unwaxed lemons. In Italy, Sorrento lemons (also known as Femminello St. Teresa or Sfusato lemons) are traditionally used to make limoncello, but supermarket lemons are most likely of the Eureka or Lisbon variety. I used unwaxed lemons because I didn’t want wax to get dissolved in the alcohol, as drinking wax doesn’t sound too appealing to me. I decided to use sugar syrup instead of granulated sugar since I didn’t want the hassle of making sure the granulated sugar was fully dissolved in the mixture.

STEP 4: Preparing the Lemon Spirit

I gave my 16 lemons a good scrub under cold water to ensure they were clean. Then, I dried them and got down to the business of peeling them. It said online that when you peel the skins you should try to avoid the pith as much as possible and that both sides of the peel should be yellow. The white part is the pith and should be avoided since it has a high concentration of naringin and limonin, bitter compounds in the lemon. I tried my best, but the exterior of the lemons was so tough, so I got a lot of pith. Next time I think I will use a zester.

I took eight of those lemons and juiced them, and then passed them through a strainer to remove the seeds and the flesh. Afterwards, I weighed out the juice and put it into two of my four samples. Here are my four samples.

Peels Only (Full)	Peels Only (Half)	Peels and Juice (Full)	Peels and Juice (Half)
“X”g of lemon peels in 0.5L of 96% NGS ~5.5 lemons	“X/2″g of lemons peels in 0.5L of 96% NGS ~ 2.5 lemons	“X”g of lemon peels in 0.5L of 96% NGS with the juice of those lemons ~5.5 lemons	“X/2″g of lemons peels in 0.5L of 96% NGS with the juice of those lemons ~ 2.5 lemons

I covered the samples up with plastic bags to keep the alcohol from evaporating. Then I put them into a dark and cool cupboard to steep. After 3 days passed, I noticed that the sample with half the lemon peels had no colour, whereas the samples with the full amount of peels had turned a beautiful yellow colour already.

At this point, the sample with the lemon juice was still being considered. However, we decided to no longer consider the two samples with half the amount of peels. The flavour and colour from these samples extremely weak.

STEP 5: Adding Sugar and Water

After waiting another week, I made up 6 samples of limoncello for everyone at the distillery to taste test. This time I added water and simple syrup to the samples. I took 10mL of the lemon spirit concentrate and mixed it with 20mL of reverse osmosis water. Then I put in different amounts of sugar syrup. One sample had 1tsp of simple syrup, another with 2tsp, and a third with 3tsp. For the other 3 samples, I substituted a portion of the reverse osmosis water with different volumes of lemon juice.

After this tasting session we decided to not include any lemon juice in our limoncello liqueur recipe, as it left a bitter taste in our mouths. Our limoncello had an intense lemony flavour and aroma. We also decided to go with the sample with 1tsp of simple syrup since it had the best balance of lemon and sweetness.

Whew! I was glad to be able to successfully pull off making a limoncello recipe.  During our tastings, I prepared limoncello samples with the lemon peel spirit that had been steeped at different times. 3 days, 10 days, 15 days and 20 days. I thought a 3 day steep was too shor. The peels steeped for 10 days and 20 days didn’t really have too much of a difference flavourwise. I think I’d steep the peels for at least 10 days, or until the peels are an opaque white colour. This colour change will indicate that the peels have given away most of their love aka “flavour and colour” to the spirit.

A Simple Limoncello Recipe

Approximate %abv = 28%abv Approximate Yield = 1L

Ingredients

• 3 Unwaxed lemons
• 300mL 96% Neutral Grain Spirit
• 120g Sugar Syrup (or to taste)
• 600mL Bottled or Distilled Water

Method

1. Briefly rinse the lemons in cold water and give them a gentle scrub with a brush to remove any dirt or debris.
2. Peel or zest the lemons, being careful to avoid the pith (white part) of the lemons. The pith will impart a bitter flavour to the limoncello.
3. Place the lemon peels in a container with the 96% abv NGS. Ensure all the lemon peels are fully submerged.
4. Allow the peels to steep for 12 days or until the peels are white and opaque in colour which signifies that most of the colour and flavour has been extracted from the peels.
5. Transfer the lemon spirit into a different container, ensuring that the lemon peels and other debris are strained out.
6. Mix the water and sugar syrup into the lemon spirit.
7. Allow the finished limoncello to sit for 5-7 days so that the flavours can marry together. Enjoy.

Watch it on YouTube Below