Franco’s Limoncello

[OtisT]

Franco’s Limoncello by Otis
.5 liter batch

* 200 ml of 95% neutral
* 1.5 lemon (yellow of skin only. Zest or skin to remove white pith.)
* 5 lemon verbena leaves, crushed
* 100 g sugar
* Add distilled water to sugar for a total of 300 ml simple syrup (makes for 40% final product)

1. Macerate zested lemon skin and crushed lemon verbena leaves in 200 ml of 95% neutral for 2 to 3 hours. Stir or shake occasionally. Strain through a stainless steel strainer to remove solids from the spirit.
2. Add 100 grams of sugar to a measuring cup then add distilled water up to 300 ml. Stir or shake until all the sugar is dissolved.
3. Mix the spirit into the syrup, seal and store for a few days or longer before enjoying

*******************

Recipe Back Story

10 years ago while I was in Italy I met and shared an evening with Franco, the father of my Italian friends. When Franco discovered that I like to make and drink spirits he brought out a bottle of Limoncello to share with me that he had made himself years ago from a generations old family recipe. It was amazing. Later he brought out his still to show me and I just had to get a picture of us together with his baby.

Otis with Franco and his still

We spent a fair amount of time talking about distillation through his young granddaughter who was translating for us. He told me the secret to his spirit was a leaf, but the granddaughter simply could not relay to me what type of leaf it was. The best I got was it was a type of lemon leaf, but not from a lemon tree. Well, 20 years later I think I figured it out what that mystery leaf is.

Last month I met a man born in Italy who was buying a badmo style aging barrel from me. While discussing the making of various spirits and learning he was from Italy, I shared my Italian limoncello story with him and my quest for the missing “lemon” leaf ingredient. He said he had something for me and a few days later he sent me his grandfathers original recipe for limoncello and it included my mystery leaf, lemon verbena.

Recipe Notes

I started making the limoncello using my Italian friend’s recipe and made multiple small batches using less and more of each ingredient to see how it impacted the spirit. I found that I preferred the original recipe but with only half the sugar originally specified. Simply double the sugar amount listed if you wish to try the original recipe. I also enjoyed this spirit proofed down to 30%.

For comparison I made a control batch without the lemon verbena leaves. I found the lemon verbena has a positive impact on both the nose and taste of the limoncello. The nose was not quite as strong lemon wise and seemed a bit more floral and sweet. The spirit with leaves has a much better finishing taste. The verbena did add a greenish tint to the spirit.

Proofed at 40% there is just a little louching from the lemon oil. The verbena leaves do not cause louching.

I would like to try this recipe in the future with Meyer lemons. I think the smell of Meyer lemons could go really well with the verbena.

Otis

[StillerBoy]

Good one OtisT..

A question.. on the lemon verbena leafs, do you fresh or dried leafs..

Mars

[OtisT]

I have only used fresh leaves myself. I was originally going to order dried leaves on-line until I discovered that my neighbor happens to be growing lemon verbena. . It smells so nice and very much like a lemon when freshly crushed.

I wonder if the dried leaves would add less green to the spirit?

[StillerBoy]

I wonder if the dried leaves would add less green to the spirit?

I wouldn't know for sure, but I would suspect a little less.. being in the northern part of the province, and not knowing anyone growing the stuff, I just might try using dry leafs.. sure interested in making it, as one read a lot about limoncello..

Also, your recipe calls for 5 leaves, and guessing here and not knowing light dried leaves would weight, but may guess would be somewhere between 5 - 10 grams for the recipe.. I have to order some more herbs for the Pastis I make, I may just order a few ounces of it..

Mars

[StillerBoy]

Another question Otis.. you state in the recipe part that the 300 ml simple syrup will reduce the limoncello to 40% overall.. but you also state that you prefer it at 30%.. so do you leave the sugar at the same level or add a little more and/or just add additional water, say like maybe an 50 -75 ml of water to make it 30%..

Mars

[OtisT]

Order the smallest amount possible. The leaves are small, and weigh virtually nothing. Dried leaves even less than nothing.

I actually prefer 40%, but I mentioned the 30% was nice too because I know a lot of folks proof down their sweet spirits to a lower ABV. I actually left the sugar as is when I proofed it down so it was a little less sweet. I normally make my limoncello less sweet, but with this one I was trying to match what I recalled of Franco’s original batch. It was sweet and smooth. Maybe years in the bottle did some smoothing?

With most sweetened spirit recipes I have tried, I like to start out with less sugar than the recipe calls for. You can always add more. I often find I prefer them with less, but that is just my personal preference.

Here is a pic of one of my tests, to show the leaves. The small glass cup size is 140ml and the larger ones are 300 I ml.

Just added neutral

After a few hours

Samples proofed and bottled

The clear green bottle is lemon verbena leaves only, no lemon. Not bad but not great on its own either. They need to be mixed with something else. You can see the light louching in the two with lemon.

[NZChris]

If you want the lemon verbena but don't want the green, do an essence run in a small still then use the essence.

[Avo]

If you want the lemon verbena but don't want the green, do an essence run in a small still then use the essence.

I will try this in a 'Soxhlet'

[StillerBoy]

Thanks Otis.. I've now got a good handle on the formula..

Mars

[OtisT]

If you want the lemon verbena but don't want the green, do an essence run in a small still then use the essence.

Thanks Chris, this is a great idea. I don’t mind the green myself, but I think I will give this a try anyway. There are still lots of leaves on the neighbors bush.

I had already done something like this simply to stock up on the herb. I made a macerated essence by putting 60 leaves in a half pint jar for a few days with 100 ml of 95% neutral. I think I’ll save that jar and try a little gin run in my mini pot still with some freshly macerated leaves.

Otis

[The Baker]

The lemon verbena plant is easy to grow.

Geoff

[Avo]

If you want the lemon verbena but don't want the green, do an essence run in a small still then use the essence.

I will try this in a 'Soxhlet'

I did a quick Limoncello in my new ‘Soxhlet’ device, it was just meant to be a quick experiment. I used the following:

400 mls Ethanol 80% abv
2.8 grams Lemon Verbena (dried)
2.8 grams dried lemon peel
Lemon zest - 2 lemons

I put all these ingredients into a coffee filter then placed it in the Soxhlet chamber
and let it cycle until the colour had left the filter and the alcohol was running clear.

I proofed it down to 40% abv with 400mls of filtered water. I added 150 mls of Monin’s pure sugar cane syrup. Total yield was approx 950 mls.

I compared the result with ‘Still Spirits’ Limoncello.
I made a 50/50 shot of each with Lemonade.

The Soxhlet mix was surprisingly clear and a good colour, more so than the S/S sample. Taste wise, S/S tasted sharper, the Soxhlet sample tasted much smoother, as if the ethanol had been well filtered and aged. There was a difference between the two, both samples of course having different ingredients.

I might add another lemon in a next batch and reduce my sugar content

[Avo]

Just realized I dropped a boo boo - I should have used 150 mls less water to allow for the sugar cane syrup. It was much weaker, hence the more mellow taste. I will adjust next batch - It should come out great

[OtisT]

Avo, i would love to get my hands on a soxhlet. Mainly for oil extraction desires, but you spirit idea has promise. .

Let me know how it turns out with a bit more lemon. Looking at the lack of louching at that low ABV it does make me think more lemon would be desired. Also, I observed what you observed, that adding the verbena does smooth things out a bit and also seemed to lower the strength of the lemon a bit. My first batch started with more verbena, and I found I liked it better when I backed off on the amount of verbena relative to the amount of lemon.

I actually tried a batch of verbena only. It was drinkable, no offensive tastes, but alone it was not something I would enjoy drinking much of straight.

The sweetening mix up resulting in a low proof is a common mistake I see. Many recipes I see list water volumes to add and also list the amount of sugar to add, but if you do the math you see the recipe should be referring to the total volume of the sugar water mix to hit the target ABV. Big difference. I tried to explain that in my recipe, without being too wordy. Hopefully you won’t do that again.

Otis

Otis

[Avo]

Avo, i would love to get my hands on a soxhlet. Mainly for oil extraction desires, but you spirit idea has promise. .



Otis

Otis

Hi Otis,

I have just finished my 'Soxhlet' run of another 'Limoncello' I got three whopping big lemons, and got 22.8 grams of zest.
I used 3 grams of Lemon verbena dried leaf and 3 grams of dried lemon peel which I ground up a little in the coffee grinder.
I used my glass lab' distiller; which has a reflux column, and produced an Ethanol of 90% abv. I added 400 mls to the soxhlet
boiling flask. I have some running figures: I cycled 12 times, after careful adjustment of temp' with my rheostat controller
I cycled 400 grams in 1/2 hourly cycles. it was just like clock-work. I ran the mantle heater at 0.8 amps with a fairly stable ethanol temp'
of 79.8 deg C -+ 1 deg. I ran it basically until the Ethanol was running clear through the filter (no colour)
It has to be said, that there is a train of thought that the cold Ethanol maceration produces a cleaner extraction, whereby heat
can degrade the final taste of heat sensitive essential oils / botanicals. The jury is out on this.
I have two questions I ask myself, (1) being that you are redistilling/recycling the ethanol I wonder if the ethanol strength increases
before it is syphoned back into the boiling flask. (2) Will repeated cycles degrade tha alcohol in anyway.

I could either use my 400 mls of ethanol/extraction and sweeten, and proof down with filtered water to 40%, or, I could distill out
on the glass lab' still down to a concentrate and add fresh Ethanol - will depend on how it turns out - should know tomorrow.

I love my 'Soxhhlet' I would not be without it now. They can be got quite cheap Otis, I will put a link on.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2Pcs-24-29-5 ... 2749.l2649

I don't know how they can do it at this price, it's not junk, it's first class glass ware. The same items are going for 4 or 5 times more on AliExpress/Distillarus In conclusion: Even if cold maceration produced a marginally better product I would still use this. It produces a
clear extraction, apart from the lemon colour which you want. The other thing is you don't have to filter anything out.

[OtisT]

That is a damn good price for that. Thanks for sharing the link. I'm between jobs now and have put the breaks on my stilling activities for a while, but when I start up again I'll be looking into getting one of these for my oil extraction hobby.

Yes, excess heat can impact the quality of some types of oil. Earlier this year I made myself a small vacuum still to play with for oil extraction, and I was able to reduce my boil temp by about 30 degrees F if I recall correctly. It worked fine but for a very slow leak in the system, so my runs were limited to about 20 minutes each before I needed to let things cool down so that I could re-vacuum the system and start again. The still was made from other still parts, so it was not worth it to me to fix it. Too many joints/connections to deal with. I plan to make a purpose built vacuum still in the future to continue on with my oil extraction experiments.

Otis

[Avo]

I'll be looking into getting one of these for my oil extraction hobby.


Otis

Hi Otis,

The new 'Limoncello' with extra Lemon zest did the trick, there is enough to cause the 'louche' at 40% abv proofing which a commercial Limoncello has, I have a Limoncello bottle with frosted glass that compliments the louche. Enclosing some pics' to compare colour. To the left is the clear concentrated 'Soxhlet' extraction. The middle sample is the 'Still Spirits' version; which I must say I do like very much, it appears by the colour and taste this only has lemon essence or whatever flavouring they use. To the right is my new Limoncello, it has good taste. Like yourself I will experiment with the recipe, I will try lemon zest only, then play around with the lemon verbena. The lemon peel, which was an extra may have imparted some bitterness to the taste.

Enclosing a link to an essential oil extractor which I bought, have not used it yet. I'm going to do a large lavender oil extraction next season using my main still and another column which I will use just for this purpose. I did one this year and got good results.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/3297324 ... 4c4dWTq1QZ

Cheers Avo.

https://limoncelloquest.com/blog/history-limoncello

[SaltyStaves]

Was given a big bunch of fresh Lemon Verbena, but I don't know when I'll next see any appropriate Lemons for Limoncello. I've put 20 leaves in with 200ml of 80.5% ABV spirit and I'll dilute and distill it as an essence. Have vacuum sealed and frozen the remaining leaves.

Smells great. Wonder whether how it would go in a gin..?

[Avo]

Was given a big bunch of fresh Lemon Verbena, but I don't know when I'll next see any appropriate Lemons for Limoncello. I've put 20 leaves in with 200ml of 80.5% ABV spirit and I'll dilute and distill it as an essence. Have vacuum sealed and frozen the remaining leaves.

Smells great. Wonder whether how it would go in a gin..?

Hi, I tried the Verbena leaves in the Limoncello, I found it made the Limoncello more bitter so I stopped using it. I now just use the lemon zest, much cleaner, purer taste. I extract the essence using a Soxhlet instead of maceration. (I use 24 - 28 grams zest approx' for a litre of 40% abv - about 5-6 lemons. It tastes great and my Son likes his regular supply. As far as gin is concerned, that would be a good idea!! Use some of the limoncello/zest extract instead of lemon peel in the gin recipe.

[SaltyStaves]

As far as gin is concerned, that would be a good idea!! Use some of the limoncello/zest extract instead of lemon peel in the gin recipe.

I was referring to the Verbena. It has a nice lemon pepper taste that could work in gin.

I distilled my Verbena essence. It lost a lot of the aroma within a day unfortunately. Without a fixative, I'm worried that by the time I find some lemons, it won't be much use to me.

[Avo]

I was referring to the Verbena. It has a nice lemon pepper taste that could work in gin.

I distilled my Verbena essence. It lost a lot of the aroma within a day unfortunately. Without a fixative, I'm worried that by the time I find some lemons, it won't be much use to me.
[/quote]

Hi, I realized you were talking about the Verbena leaf. I will not use it again, I think it spoils the clean sharp flavour of the lemon zest. I'm suprised you cannot get lemons With lemon zest you can always tone the sharpness down by using more sugar less zest or lower abv. You could get a bulk pack of dried lemon zest off Ebay? - I primarily make gin for myself, and you gave me the idea that I should be using my own zest extraction or limoncello to add to my gin instead of using lemon peel. Good luck with your Verbena leaf trials.

p.s. What about using Oris root as a fixative (one of the ingredients in my gin)

[SaltyStaves]

I'm suprised you cannot get lemons With lemon zest you can always tone the sharpness down by using more sugar less zest or lower abv. You could get a bulk pack of dried lemon zest

I have a tree. Its not sprayed with anything other than rain. So I'm happy to use them (unlike the supermarket ones). It has no fruit on it at the moment though.

Orris root might work in a gin, but I'm not sure I want it in my limoncello. I think the best solution may be to just use both ingredients at the same time when they are available to me.

[CoogeeBoy]

Franco’s Limoncello by Otis

* 5 lemon verbena leaves, crushed

Hi Otis,
Any chance you could post a clearer picture of the Verbena leaves?
We have a community garden nearby with a beautiful lemon smelling shrub, not lemongrass although that is there too, and I was wondering if this might be a form of Verbena.
it doesnt have purple flowers though.

Thank you

[Saltbush Bill]

We have a community garden nearby with a beautiful lemon smelling shrub

Coogee if you are in AU that is more than likely Lemon Myrtle "Backhousia Citriodora", it can be used in food or spirit as a flavoring. Ive made a version of lemocello using it on its own, it turned out quite well.
There are plenty of photos of it on the internet if you need to reference leave shape or looks.

[CoogeeBoy]

We have a community garden nearby with a beautiful lemon smelling shrub

Coogee if you are in AU that is more than likely Lemon Myrtle "Backhousia Citriodora", it can be used in food or spirit as a flavoring. Ive made a version of lemocello using it on its own, it turned out quite well.
There are plenty of photos of it on the internet if you need to reference leave shape or looks.

Thanks Saltbush,
I thought it could be that, I did a little googling just now and it might also be what they are calling Lemon Verbena

Am walking down there now to check it out!

[SaltyStaves]

Lemon Verbena leaves are not glossy and have a gritty texture like fine sandpaper.

[OtisT]

Coogeeboy, sorry I can’t get a picture of it now. If you take a pic of what you have I may be able to ID it. +1 to what Salty said About leaf texture. The smell of lemon should be obvious, especially if you crush a leaf. I believe flower color can vary but am not sure. Otis

[CoogeeBoy]

Coogeeboy, sorry I can’t get a picture of it now. If you take a pic of what you have I may be able to ID it. +1 to what Salty said About leaf texture. The smell of lemon should be obvious, especially if you crush a leaf. I believe flower color can vary but am not sure. Otis

Hi all,
Got it sorted thank you, the stuff I have access to is Lemon Verbana.

Posted a bit about my limoncello in "What did y'all make today?" topic, if it is ok, i will re-post it here,

[CoogeeBoy]

Sorry for the re-posting but this might be the more appropriate topic. I posted this in another section earlier and don't know how to post a link yet!

Right, well I made some Limoncello and the equivalent made from limes.
Here is my report.
I macerated chopped limes and chopped lemons separately on 85% ABV neutral (it dropped from 92% to 85% when I filtered it).
At the same time, I macerated lemon skins only on 85% ABV neutral.
The Lemon skins only made a lovely limoncello after diluting with 1:2 sugar syrup (1 sugar 2 water) and had that typical cloudy limoncello look, BUT........
The macerated chopped lemons and chopped limes did something quite unusual, something I didn't foresee: both the lemons and the lime pieces looked "dry". I did a check and the ABV had dropped to about 45% from 85%.
I think this was osmosis from the fruit to the alcohol.
This created a dilemma as I couldn't use the 1:2 sugar syrup to sweeten as I would dilute the ABV too low so I made a 1:1 sugar syrup.

I then asked all my mates to try the 3 different ones and let me know what they thought.

Well, he said he liked the lime one first, then the lemon piece limoncello then the limoncello made from skins only. And I had to agree with him.
The limoncello made on the pieces of fruit had a more "real" limoncello taste, not as smooth, maybe a little gutteral, rustic even.
It was back to basics compared to the one made on lemon skins only, which was delicious but lacked "character" maybe.
Here is the other thing: all my research told me it would be bitter beyond repair if I included the pith but it wasn't, and I think that was because the little pith exposed was between the flesh and the skin, very little surface area.

Anyway, I am now going back to do a second run (I've run out of neutral so it will be a little while) but I have also tried macerating whole limes in 92% ABV and that seems to be just as good as the skins only method so far (I taste tested today).

Thanks for listening.

[JakeB]

I tried this last week. Delicious, thanks very much for the recipe. I wasn't sure where to get fresh lemon verbena, so I got dried lemon verbena. I went just a bit light on it because I wanted it to stay yellow, definitely rounds the lemon flavor nicely. Next time I'll probably add a bit more... Also, I was hoping it would stay clear, and louche if served over ice... Mine did not... pretty cloudy at 40%. I even used a little of the lemon juice filtered and simmered for 20 min to invert the sugar. Maybe a bit less sugar? Maybe a bit less time with the lemon zest? The lemon flavor was definitely very strong. Overall I highly recommend this recipe, I am going to play with it a bit, to try to get clear with a louche when watered down slightly.