I finished this batch a while ago and still have a small bit leftover and there are a couple things to go into. First off, one batch was made using standard Absolut, and the other with the 100 proof Smirinoff. The Absolut version was a mess and I've had no more than a few sips. The rest is still sitting in my home, although I should really just dump the batch. I think its due to a few differences in the process. The Smirinoff version is delicious, and I was very happy with how it turned out. I still have a small bit left, and need to start another batch soon. The differences are as follows: The Smirinoff version used the same lemons as the absolut, but they were first submerged in boiling water for 10 seconds, removed, and scrubbed with a rough cloth to remove the wax. With the Absolut version, I just scrubbed them under warm running water. Second, and I think this is the most important, is that I barely took the yellow off of the lemons with the micro-plane for the smirinoff version, while I was a little heavy handed with the grater on the absolut. This, IMO, made all the difference in the world. The absolut is quite bitter and side by side is really not good compared to the smirinoff version. After approximately 40 days of sitting, I used an identical amount of sugar for each to give the same sweetness, but recalculated the amount of total simple syrup I needed to use in order to get my ~65 proof. This thread was extremely helpful though, thanks to all. The only real problem I have is that I can't find the formula I used for the amount of sugar to water, so I'm gonna have to try again next batch and do a better job of not throwing it away.