Do we have any Sloe Gin fans here?

hyperfish

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This will be my first attempt to be ready in time for Christmas.

I Googled this basic recipe and have got the ingredients ready.

1 litre of Gin.
500g Sloe berries.
3 Table spoons of caster sugar.

Put everything in a 1.5 litre jar.
Leave in a cool dark place.
Stir weekly.

I would appreciate any tips that prevent me screwing up decent liquor, or does anyone have a better recipe?
 
Me, me, pick me! ! :D
 
Sloes are best collected after the first frost. If picked earlier pop them into the freezer overnight. Otherwise you should prick them with a fork, which is a right pain and best avoided. Don't stir them, gently invert the bottle.

Optional step: For maximum yield leave out the sugar at the start, until the gin is nearly ready.

Decant the alcohol when it's ready and then put the sugar on the fruit for a few days, this will draw more liquid out of the fruit. Decant that and rinse the fruit with a bit of the gin. Recombine all liquid and enjoy.

Your recipe is fine.
 
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Just about to start my first batch as well, been waiting for the first frost, before picking the sloe berries.

I'll check my recipe, its from a Victorian cook book.
 
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If you drink it too soon, you could easily conclude it's a waste of good gin, so don't be in too much of a rush with it.

It improves with age and after about a year or so kinda turns into a deliciously sweet and tasty liqueur, that's fantastic, say as a sauce with a desert - or maybe you just might like to drink it neat to help wash down a few pieces of good dark chocolate.
 
I agree with allowing it to age. I made some flavoured Vodkas earlier this year which have certainly improved over time.

I have been given enough sloe berries to make two litres, one of which I will try and resist until next Christmas.

Apparently there are plenty of berries to be picked a few hundred yards from my home, but until I was given a bag full yesterday I had no idea what they looked like.

I'll probably pick and freeze some for later.
 
There is a school of thought that thinks if you leave the gin over the sloes for too long, the product isn't as good. We leave ours for 6 months before decanting and then store in corked bottles for as long as necessary. (7 years is the longest so far, and that was pretty good).

Recipe:

Kilner jar, add sloes until 90% full add sugar with shaking until you can't get any more in, lather it all with cheap (Lidl, Aldi etc) gin. Top up with gin as necessary. Leave 6 months, decant, bottle, leave.





:boring::boring::boring:


Drink.:zonked:
 
Sloe gin is lovely.

But Damson Whisky FTW
 
Interested in making this - but likes like it'll be for next year!

What kind of jar to use? one of those spaghetti jars with an airtight lid?
 
Lather it all with cheap (Lidl, Aldi etc) gin.
Based on my experience with the flavoured Vodks's I made I have to disagree with this.

I made some with a bottle of cheap Sainsburys that reviewed well, but it was dog rough compared to Smirnoff in the same batch.

The difference between Gordons and Tesco value is only £3 on a litre bottle anyway.

Paul_T said:
What kind of jar to use
I use these but it needs a bit of cling film to make it air tight. 1.5 lire jar cost £3 at Sainsburys. The guy who gave me the Sloes makes his in a demijohn.
 

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I found a similar jar in Wilko's for £3 and it's got a chunky rubber ring so I hope that's pretty airtight - the lid is pretty stiff to get on and off so it should be.

Having trouble sourcing Damson's / Sloe's though!

On a similar note - anyone got any guidelines for flavoured Vodka? I'm thinking of Cinnamon for some reason but no idea how much to put in.
 
I have made raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, strawberry, summer fruits and nectarine Vodkas.

My favourite being summer fruits, just a frozen bag from the supermarket.

All were successful apart from the nectarine. Tasted like wood stain but I threw other fruit in which brought it round. In all honesty the nectarines were a mistake, I thought I bought peaches at the time. :blush:
Blueberry was bland.

The recipes are pretty much the same. I under sweeten so I have the option to add more later if necessary. I initially made small quantities to test the result and them scaled up. You may want to try that with the cinnamon.

I have just set aside my first litre of sloe today.
 
We have made various scavenged fruit spirit's for the last 10 years. I've still got a bottle of 2002 sloe gin and blackberry vodka in the cupboard and stacks of bottles from then onwards.

The best tip i could give you is to make 5-10L every year and you will soon have a stock pile.

It also makes great cheap gifts for family. We give a half bottle every year to my aunties with a nice handwritten label.
 
Sometimes we find that the end of the bottle can have a slight jelly like texture. Never had a problem after drinking it, but if not to your taste, then either add it to the fruit filling of crumbles or if you are having a gamey meat, add it to the gravy for an extra bit of yum.
 
You can also make Blackberry and White Rum which is quite good.
 
Freeze the sloes to break the skin, that way you won't need to prick every single berry.Double the amounts of ingredients and make twice as much........if you get it right it won't last long !!!
Add a nut liqueur ( hazelnut or almond ) alongside the sugar to give it a lovely nutty complementary taste.
Don't buy expensive Gin, once its infused you won't be able to tell Tescos own from Hendricks. Get a 2 litre bottle and you already have a container to make your GIN. Keep that bottle for next year. Shake the bottle vigorously at least every other day.
Taste it 2 weeks before Xmas, if it is too harsh add more sugar or nut liqueur.


Enjoy...............I do every year............... be aware getting drunk on sloe gin is very very easy, the hangover is not pleasant !!
 
Sometimes we find that the end of the bottle can have a slight jelly like texture.
I have about ½" to 1" of sediment in the vodkas I made. I thought about running it through a coffee filter, what do you think?

I tend to just invert the bottle before pouring and live with it but clarity would be nice.
 
No reason not to :thumbsup:
 
I have about ½" to 1" of sediment in the vodkas I made. I thought about running it through a coffee filter, what do you think?

I tend to just invert the bottle before pouring and live with it but clarity would be nice.

I did try filtering the sediment but the jelly texture really rather precluded that.

All this talk of Sloe Gin reminded me that we had another pot of stuff brewing. It may not work if you use IronGiants 'add the sugar second' method, but if you steep the sloes in sugar and gin, then instead of just ditching the sloes after you have filtered off the gin, re-steep them in a fairly strong (5% +) cider for a couple of months. Its a much more variable result and you may have to experiment (different ciders, length of time in gin or cider etc etc ) to find a result that really suits your pallette, but hopefully it won't ever disappoint.
 
Eh? :confused: It's a liqueur made by flavouring gin with sloes :)

Sloes are the fruit of the blackthorn tree.
 
The eh was meant for the previous poster :) I was typing very slowly :blush:
 

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