When Life Hands You Lemons...

My meyer lemon tree had a good crop this last year. With the weather heating up, the last lemons on the tree are starting to fall off perfectly ripe. So what do I do with a bunch of lemons before they go bad? Lemonade? OK, but that's boring. These lemons are so good they aspire to something more. Lemoncello! That way the whole lemon gets used. The zest for lemoncello, and the juice for lemonade.

So a bottle of everclear and about 10 minutes worth of zesting later, here's what I got. Only several months left til it's ready. But hey, we're used to that on this forum.

Wow, did it with Everclear? I've heard of infused vodkas, but when you crack that bad boy open it'll be one hell of a night

x2

i never thought to do that with everclear. let us know how it is.

I love Meyers lemons. Had a tree in Fullerton and they were so good I would eat them like oranges.

Be close to home when you open that bottle.

Haha, it'll be strong but I'm going to dilute it with a simple syrup once the primary extraction is over. So no worries on me drinking 190 proof limoncello! I figure I'll dilute it to about 100 proof. The trick will be getting the syrup to have the right sugar/water concentration so that it won't end up too sweet.

Meyer lemons are great. Like a sweeter, more fragrant normal lemon. And having a tree is great because you don't have to worry about wax on the skin or anything like that you may get in a grocery store.

I make about 20 bottles of lemoncello every harvest, also limoncello, orange-cello, even made grapefruit-cello, that one was awesome mixed with a can of squirt!
odd, I never thought of making lemonade! I squeeze them and strain into icecube trays to use later when cooking.

"when life gives you lemons, you say F$@% the lemons and bail"

We have made several Lemoncello batches using the everclear. We soak the zest for 40 days (shake container everyday and keep it in the dark). We then add a fifth of lemon flavored vodka and use lemon flavored simple syrup. The results will rock you and you need to be careful about how much you consume. This is potent stuff. It is very mellow and is best kept in the freezer until served.

Straining is recommended prior to bottling this stuff as there will be significant floaties. Not really any sediment, just the zest floaters.

Good Luck.

Salute!

Bobby_M said:

"when life gives you lemons, you say F$@% the lemons and bail"

Click to expand...

or:
"when life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade. then find some one whose life has given them vodka, and then have a party."

yummybeer said:

or:
"when life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade. then find some one whose life has given them vodka, and then have a party."

Click to expand...

HA! I was going to post that! I love that one

I just bottled my first batch of limoncello tonight. I hit the zest just perfect because it's extremely yummy and hit me over the head like a yellow sledgehammer. Used a combination of regular lemons, meyer lemons, and the zest of 1 bitter orange.

Made it with a mid-grade Polish vodka since everclear is hard to find around here.

Set it up in a big sun tea jar for about 3-4 weeks, then added my simple syrup for bottling.

yummybeer said:

or:
"when life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade. then find some one whose life has given them vodka, and then have a party."

Click to expand...

Three simple rules for life:
1. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
2. When life gives you hemlock, don't make hemlock-ade.
3. Always know the difference between a lemon and a hemlock.