Happy Friday, malt lovers! I hope you're all well.
I expect to actually be home to respond to comments this week, which will add to the quantity of discussion if not the quality.
Huge surprise just minutes ago! Remember back a year ago, in "DKos3", diary drafts that weren't published in time went away? I lost the first two chapters of my planned homebrewing series to that. Just now I looked at my "drafts" tab and (in addition to about 15 empty entries that shouldn't have been saved) they are there! Huzzah!
Nonetheless, I'll continue with my non-beer-related topic. Next week you'll get Brewing Part 1. Tonight it's all about booze.
My very small property includes a lemon tree, and for the first time this year I tried making limoncello out of part of the crop. I'm happy with the result.
I followed the recipe / process from limoncelloquest. Back in May I picked 40 lemons, scraped off the zest with a Microplane, and added it to 3 liters of liquor (partly vodka, partly everclear). Then I put it in a jug in the closet and forgot about it. In late September I realized I'd better do the next step soon or it wouldn't be ready for Christmas. I added the lemon mixture to 3 liters of sugar syrup, and now requiring two jugs it went back in the closet.
This week I finished the process and discovered two things. 1: Finding pretty bottles to put the product in is a pain, and the bottles cost more than the contents. 2: Filtering the stuff is by far the slowest step of the job. It takes hours, although you can ignore it for most of that time.
Filtration 1 just gets the solid pieces of lemon zest out, leaving a cloudy liquor.
3 more filterings (two through paper coffee filters) gives you this beautifully clear, professional looking product.
It tastes pretty good too :) Final result: about 4.8 liters of 60 proof liqueur. You lose a lot to the filtration, much of it simply absorbed by the paper filters.
But that's not what I'm drinking tonight. I've got Mission Street IPA, SN Celebration, and Hop Riot IPA from a new place called High Water. What are you drinking?