Limoncello Batch #17

Limoncello is a variation of Lemoncello with limes instead of lemons. I've tried it a few times and it's a bit more difficult to make because the limes have a more pronounced 'bitterness' and need some work getting the amount of syrup right. If you have a favorite 'family' lemoncello recipe, it probably won't come out perfect first try w/limes. We found the secret in making good limoncello was in making a very concentrated syrup.

Ingredients:
- A dozen limes
- 750ml Everclear
- White sugar
- Distilled water

Procedure:
- Grate the green part of the peel off the limes, careful not to get any white. Use a cheese grater.
- Put the grated lime peels in a jar with the Everclear. This process is called 'macerating' by the way. The limes need to sit in here for a while, let them soak for about a month, gently stirring the jar every few days. Keep it in a cool dark place. The color of the liquid is amazingly beautiful!
- When ready, pour the liquid off through a strainer. You can use coffee filters for this. Usually I strain it through the filters a couple times.
- Boil the sugar in the water. OK, here is the secret amount: 2 cups sugar to 2 cups water. Boil a few minutes and let cool. It will be nice and thick and syrup-y. Let is cool to room temp before using.
- Pour most of the syrup into the lime extract, saving about 1/2 cup. Give it a taste, if it is still bitter, add a little more syrup. The syrup is very concentrated, so you can control the sweetness of your limoncello quite a bit by small amounts of syrup. Just get it how you like it. I suppose you could even make more syrup if you want it sweeter.
- Put this in the freezer, within a day or so it gets nice and thick and ready to drink.
- There is one more step if you are a perfectionist. After a week or so in the freezer, the limoncello will develop some black specs. Traditional Lemoncello (with lemons instead of limes) doesn't do this, and Im not sure why, but of course the only thing it can be is the difference between lemons and limes. So, if you want it to be nice and clear, you can filter it one more time through a coffee filter, and put it back in the freezer.

Some notes:
As you can tell from the name "Batch 17", it took a while to get this recipe right. I learned a lot of tricks. For example, many recipes call for Vodka instead of the more expensive and harder to find Everclear - really the Everclear is much better. Also, the sugar water ratio is very important - I learned that making a very concentrated syrup, with equal amounts of water and sugar, made the lime flavors stand out more because you need much less syrup to get to the proper sweetness.