Franco’s Limoncello

Sweetened spirits with various flavors

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OtisT
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Re: Franco’s Limoncello

Post by OtisT »

Glad you like the recipe. I made a batch last year with half the lemon verbena my original recipe calls for and it also turned out well. I stuck to the original recipe at first but I was tasting a bit of the bitterness someone mentioned previously in this thread, so rather than increase the sugar to cover it I doubled everything in the batch minus the verbena and it seems to improve the bitter w/o getting overly sweet.

My understanding is that the louching (sp?) is from the lemon oil. An extra lemony spirt means more lemon oil, so louching will occur at relatively higher ABVs. The only way I know to eliminate/reduce the louching would be to reduce the amount of lemon oil relative to total volume. I personally don’t mind the louching. When folks mention the cloudiness it give me an excuse to talk about the ingredients and the process, which I like to do.

Otis
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NZChris
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Re: Franco’s Limoncello

Post by NZChris »

I'd forgotten about your thread when I made my recent batch, or I would have tried to find some lemon verbena to use. Fortunately, it was only a small batch and is has turned out very nice without it.

A trick for adding flavor without color is Liqueur du Pendu. It has already been discussed on the forum and I've successfully used it several times. If I can find some LV, I'll plant one and steal a sprig to trap in the top of the bottle with a cork for a couple of days.

I've never considered trying to make clear Limoncello. Trying to balance having intense flavors while not having louche sounds like a fool's errand to me.
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