For when you’ve exhausted all other iso activities and have more banana bread than you could ever get through (it freezes well, FYI!), why not consider making your own booze?
Brewing beer or cider at home can be somewhat finicky — requiring specialist equipment for bottling and such — but making Limoncello is perhaps one of the easiest, tastiest and most enjoyable alcohol-related activities to take part in.
One South Australia distillery wants to help you on your way, and have taken it upon themselves to deliver DIY Limoncello kits around Australia.
Applewood Distillery in Adelaide Hills is shipping out all the ingredients necessary to make 1.5L of their own secret Limoncello recipe, which they sell at $35 for a 500mL bottle (read: it’s a cracking deal).
Inside the kit, you’ll be equipped with their ‘Unico Not Yet Cello’ spirit (a 60% ABV Applewood spirit), plus 750-800gms of lemons and the “safely guarded” recipe card, all for $50.
“We’ve been making out Limoncello for almost five years now and it’s been easily one of our most popular products we make. People go nuts for this stuff and fair enough, we think it’s bloody delicious,” Applewood Distillery says.
Limoncello is an easy spirit to make with household equipment. The process involves steeping lemon zest in highly concentrated ethanol or vodka until oil is released, then mixing the yellow liquor with simple syrup.
The story of Applewood Distillery’s decision to make limoncello is a special one. The owners of the property saved a series of 150-year-old lemon trees from South Australia’s oldest citrus plantation, which produced beautiful, but “ugly”, lemons. Instead of the trees being cut down, they decided to make limoncello.
“It is our labour of love. Literally! We spend 12 hours hand peeling lemons from the orchard to produce this delicious drop. In fact, we have a family ritual of taking turns to peel a couple of buckets a day. Everyone chips in,” the distillery says.
Head to the Applewood Distillery site now to order your DIY limoncello kit today.