Homemade Limoncello Recipe + Calculations (2024)

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Limoncello is a sweet and potent Italian lemon liqueur made with steeping lemon peel in grain alcohol, or vodka, as a substitute.

Estimated reading time: 14 minutes

What is Limoncello?

It’s a lemon liqueur and is also known as limoncino and limonello, depending on which part of Italy you happen to be in. While it’s popular all over the country (and elsewhere), it has its roots in Southern Italy, specifically, the Amalfi Coast, Sorento and the island of Capri.

Homemade limoncello is the best! If you make it right, that is. If you’ve been following me a while, you know that I love making up co*cktails and alcoholic infusions.In this post, I’m going to share with you how I make traditional Italian limoncello.

Suffering for my craft through many an experiment, I long ago discovered that limoncello in Italy is quite different from limoncello elsewhere. My first experience of real limoncello was at a friend’s wedding on the island of Capri, 20 years ago, almost to the day (they just celebrated their 20th wedding anniversary).

How do you drink Limoncello in Italy?

The first thing I noticed was how it was served – straight out of the freezer, in ice cold shot glasses. And it was smoother too. And finally, at 35 – 40% abv, the Italian limoncello was most certainly more potent.

That would explain why, I felt no pain (nor shame), when the table I was dancing on, fell apart!

Here, in the UK, most of the limoncello I come across is an insipid 25-28%, which makes it impossible to be placed in the freezer. But more of that later.

Limoncello History

Limoncello doesn’t have a long history. British journalist Lee Marshall in his article entitled L’invenzione della tradizione (The Invention of Tradition) in The Internazionale, says:

“but nobody (that I know) makes mention of limoncello before the beginning of the twentieth century. And, out of a handful of families and social clubs, only a few were to drink it before 1988, when the caparese Massimo Canale registered the Limoncello di Capri brand and started to produce the yellow liqueur… “

How to Drink Limoncello

• Serve it neat, straight out of the freezer, as an aperitif or digestive (before or after a meal)
• Use it in co*cktails (see below)

When chilled in the freezer, your limoncello becomes thick and syrupy, it’s like drinking lemon flavoured nectar.

So the alcohol level is important, because anything below 30% is going to freeze, and unless you’re thinking of limoncello ice lollies, we need our FINAL CONCOCTION to be at least 30%. And I’m going to talk you through how to do that even if the best alcohol you can get is 37% vodka.

How do you make Limoncello from Scratch (Limoncello Ingredients)

1. Alcohol
2. Lemons
3. Sugar
4. Water

⇒ 4 ingredients. That’s all it takes to make a smooth, classy, Italian limoncello. Let’s take a closer look at the first two.

Please, please, for the love of Bacchus, DO NOT use lemon juice to make limoncello! No matter what you read on other sites! Add lemon juice, and it’s no longer limoncello.

1. What alcohol to use for making Limoncello

This, to me, is probably the most important thing to get right, if we want to make the real thing. So we need to start with a high level of alcohol. You want to get your hands on grain alcohol or pure alcohol, commonly sold under the brand name Everclear.

Grain alcohol is commonly bottled at 151 proof (75.5% alcohol by volume or ABV) and 190 proof (95% ABV). The 190 proof is very difficult to get and is illegal in many U.S. states because it can very easily lead to alcohol poisoning.

⇒ 151 proof grain alcohol (Everclear) is perfect for making Limoncello

That means that it will contain 75.5% alcohol. So to ensure that we don’t dip below our 30% alcohol volume, a little maths is called for here:

1. The traditional method of making limoncello is to dilute the alcohol with a simple sugar syrup made with water and sugar.
2. If you use the same amount of alcohol to sugar syrup, you will be halving (give or take) the amount of alcohol in your final mixture.
3. So 1 litre of alcohol (75.5% abv) + 1 litre of simple syrup (water +sugar) = 37% abv (give or take)

⇒Can’t get grain alcohol for Limoncello? Let’s use Vodka!

Ok, so here, we have to think a little. The highest abv you’re going to get for vodka is 50%, which is 100 proof.

Immediately, we can see that diluting it by the same amount of water just isn’t going to work for us, as that would take that right down to just 25% abv – you’re gonna get limoncello ice lollies at 25%!Don’t give them to the kids!

Before we get down to the maths, let’s talk proof and abv.

What’s the difference between proof and abv (alcohol by volume)?

The words are quite commonly misunderstood and mistakenly used to mean the same thing. Briefly, the word proof goes back to England in the 16th century, when gunpowder was drenched in alcohol to test for its potency. If the wet gunpowder lit, then the liquor was considered above proof and taxed at a higher rate.

This use of the word proof carried over to the US. In the mid 19th century, to standardise the amount of alcohol sold, given the practice of diluting spirits, 50% alcohol in a spirit was chosen as the standard, or baseline. And, this was described as being 100 proof. As in, it would light up.

Incidentally, chemistry doesn’t allow you to get 100% abv, 200 proof. 95% or 190 proof is as high as it goes.

Be sure to start off with a good quality vodka.That doesn’t mean expensive, be sure it’s something you would drink on its own. Like cooking wine, you infuse rubbish, you’ll get rubbish!

Limoncello Alcohol Percentage Calculation

So, if vodka is all you can get, and what if you can only get 40% abv or only 37%? The trick is to lower the amount of water used. Here’s my formula for making limoncello with vodka, all starting with 1 litre (4 cups) of vodka.

LinsFood’s Limoncello Calculator

This is my own formula that I base our limoncello calculations on:

x = total amount of liquid (original alcohol + the syrup we’ll be adding)
y = original volume of alcohol in millilitres (so 50% abv of 1 litre vodka = 500ml of alcohol)
z = target abv

x = y÷z

When you have calculated x, you will remove the amount of vodka or grain alcohol you are starting with. This will leave you with the amount of simple syrup you need. Simple!

Example: 1 litre vodka with 50% abv (as below this pink box)

x = 500 ÷ 0.33 (which is 33%) x = y÷z remember?
x = 1515 millilitres (1.515 litres)
So the total liquid (vodka + simple syrup) is 1515 millilitres
Since we started with 1 litre vodka, 1515 – 1000 (millilitres) = 515 ml
So we need 515 ml simple syrup (water + sugar)

How much Sugar in the Simple Syrup?

The next part is a matter of taste. More sugar = sweeter limoncello.
Every 100g of sugar (1/2 cup) will give you 50 ml of syrup. Just add water to that for your total simple syrup.

Edit May 2023: I’ve had many messages about the amount of sugar in the simple syrup. So here goes.

I work on a 1:4 ratio, which gives a total of 5 parts.

So 1 part sugar in ml : 4 parts water (because you can’t compare weight to volume, we convert the sugar to its liquid amount first).

1. Calculate your simple syrup amount. (Let’s say we have 800ml simple syrup)
2. Divide that amount by 5 (that’s 160)
3. Your answer (160) is 1 part of 5 – this is the amount of the sugar you need in volume. (that’s 160ml of sugar in liquid form)
4. So 800 ml – 160 ml = 640 ml >> you need 160 ml sugar and 640 ml water (that’s 1:4)
5. 160 ml sugar is 320 g in weight, see above.

   This is how you work out how much sugar and water you need for your simple syrup.

How to make Limoncello with 50% vodka

• 1 litre (4 cups) vodka @50% abv
• Target = 33%final abv
• Lemons = 12
• Simple Syrup = 520 ml (rounded up, just over 2 cups) made with:
• Water = 400ml (1 3/5 cups)
• Sugar = 240 g (1 1/5 cups)

How to make Limoncello with 40% vodka

• 1 litre (4 cups) vodka @40% abv
• Target = 33%final abv
• Lemons = 10
• Simple Syrup = 220 ml (4/5 cup) rounded up, made with:
• Water = 120ml (just about 1/2 cup)
• Sugar = 200 g (1 cup)

How to make Limoncello with 37% vodka

⇒ why don’t we keep it simple and skip the water?! That’s what I would do, giving you a limoncello with about 37% abv – fabulous stuff, but a little sweeter than the formulae above.

• 1 litre (4 cups) vodka @37% abv
• Target = 35%final abv
• No Water
• Lemons = 8
• Sugar = 200 g (1 cup)
  just fyi, this amount of sugar will give you the equivalent of 100 ml of liquid (about 2/5 cup)
• If your sugar isn’t completely dissolving after 4 weeks, add 60ml water (1/4 cup) to the mix, stir, and leave for another 2 weeks. (EDIT Sep 2021)

⇒ If you are making your limoncello with no water, that is, with 37% or even 40% vodka, just add the sugar on Day 15. NO WATER.

2. Lemons for Limoncello

The sweeter and more aromatic your lemons are, the more sublime your limoncello will be. I am lucky to be able to get beautiful Italian lemons here from the folks I shop with, Ocado.

Ideally, your lemons want to be organic and unwaxed.

Because whatever pesticides were used and that wax? That’s going into your limoncello otherwise, as it’s only the peel we will be using.

Speaking of peel, the traditional method is to grate the lemon zest into tiny bits. However, half the time, I get lazy and just use a peeler, and make it with strips of peel. This works just as well, especially if your limoncello is going to sit for more than 2 months.

Be careful not to have any of the white bitter pith, or your drink is going to be bitter.

If you can’t get organic lemons and/or unwaxed lemons? Scrub them gently with a vegetable brush with warm water.

What to do with the lemons after making limoncello?

• Make some lemonade for everyone, and spike the adults’ portions!
• Or any of the recipes in the gallery below!

Readers’ Questions

What is Simple Syrup?

Simple Syrup is just water and white sugar, heated up and left to simmer (on the lowest heat) for 2 minutes on the stove. The time may differ from person to person, but that is really all you are doing, making a sweetener for your drinks.

If you need to figure out how much simple syrup you will get from however much water and sugar you use, just remember this (also mentioned above):
Every 100g of sugar (1/2 cup) will give you 50 ml of liquid (when the sugar is melted). Just add water to that for your total simple syrup.

So there really isn’t any reason to buy a commercially made one as it’ll inevitably contain other ingredients that you don’t need.

In my co*cktails, I always give you more than one portion, because I assume you’ll want more, and also because the syrup will keep happily for weeks. You only need to worry about the ants!

Is homemade limoncello supposed to be cloudy?

Essentially, what makes limoncello is the essential oil from the peel, which is why we don’t add lemon juice to the mix. Over time, the essential oil seeps out into the alcohol.

When sugar syrup is added to the mix, you get a spontaneous emulsification, resulting in an essential oil and water emulsion. So you have a louched (cloudy) limoncello. You want this, because that means you’ve got enough essential oil of lemon, creating a delicious limoncello.

This louche effect is also known as the ouzo effect (same thing happens) and is what you get when you dilute absinthe. In the latter, the process is known as la louche.

However, this does depend on the strength of alcohol you are using. If you are using a low strength vodka, chances are your limoncello will remain fairly clear.

Limoncello co*cktails

It makes a perfect co*cktail ingredient, and besides the Limoncello Margarita on this site, here’s a simple way to enjoy limoncello in a drink:

• 2 shots limoncello
• 1 shot vodka
• top with 7Up
• add some ice & berries of your choice

More infusions and co*cktails on theDrinks page:

Sterilising Jars and Bottles

1. Turn the oven on to a cool130˚C/250˚F/Gas Mark ½.
2. Wash the jars, bottles and lids in hot soapy water.
3. Place the jars, bottles and lids upside down in the oven and leave them to dry, with the door closed for 15 minutes.
4. Turn the oven off and leave the jars, bottles and lids in there, bringing them out only when you are ready to fill. Be careful, as they’ll be hot.

Images from LinsFoodies

Did you enjoy this article and found it useful? Or got a question? Drop me a comment and if you’re feeling like a star, don’t forget that all important, 5-star rating!Thank you!

And if you make the recipe, share it on any platform and tag me @azlinbloor, and hashtag it #linsfood.

Lin xx