This one technically isn't even brewing - more steeping - and it's deffo not a cider, perry or wine, but this seems like the best place for it.
Sloe Gin is an easy to make liquer, with a great taste.
The hardest part is the waiting.
It's great with tonic or lemonade, or on ice. Also great in sauces and desserts.
Other liquers like limoncello are made in pretty much the same way.
You can pick your sloes earlier in the year (from early october), then freeze them to break the skins.
Or you can prick the skins with a sewing needle.
Or my way is the lazy way, wait til the first solid frost and the flesh will soften naturally. Then just squash them on the way into the bottle.
How to:
- Pick 450 grams of sloes
- Buy a 700ml bottle of CHEAP gin (vodka if you don't like gin) and a bag of sugar
- prick or squash the sloes and push them into a 2liter bottle, a coke botle will do.
- add 400g sugar and the bottle of gin
- shake!
- shake once per day for the first week until the sugar is completely disolved
- shake twice per week for a month, then whenever you think of it
- at the end of the third or fourth month, seive/filter the liquid off the berry waste and bottle. you can leave it longer, but the longer you leave it the more 'almondy' it will become as it draws flavour from the seeds.
- I think it's best after about 6 months to a year off the berries, and I've no idea how long it will laste for, as it's never made it past a year.
I've got a bottle of 2 year old for this winter.
You can also add a few drops of almond extract/essnce it adds to the taste in my opinion. This hint was passed on by my late father-in-law!
The last two sloe seassons have ben rubbish around my area. Almost NO berries.
Sloes are members of the Plum family and if you can't get slows then you can do the saqme with Damsons that you should be able to buy in the shops. Just need a bigger bottle neck!
I use the big Kilner jars for the steeping
Sloe gin is amazing stuff, same as Will the Sloe session I did was very bad. Three to four sloes per bush.
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same here, most bushes had nothing but i found 2 good ones together that sorted me out :)
Lads, we had an unbelievable crop down here; I didn't bother picking them because I still have a few pound in the freezer for making sloe gin, and the sloe wine I made last year was very insipid. I could definitely have picked 30 lbs without exerting myself. But then things are blooming in general down here this year - just look at the mighty Mount Leinster Rangers. COME ON YOU RANGERS!!!
Er, sorry - I'm inclined to get carried away a bit ...my eldest son was on the county-winning U. 16 and Minor teams this year.
Anyway, back to sloes. I have a slight variation that is sumptuous, and ready to drink a little earlier -
4 oz sloes
4 oz sugar
1/4 bottle gin
red wine to shoulder
Prick the sloes as usual, and put everything into a wine bottle. Then just shake every day for a month, and strain before serving. Better still, multiply everything by six and do it in a demijohn - if you'll pardon the expression.
Just found a bottle of lordeoin sloe gin, that I didn't even realise I had, and very tasty! A few nips were just what I needed on a chilly brew day! Don't want to sample too much until the brew is put to bed!
That's my last one, honestly!
I'm glad you liked it Taf, that's the one I brought over when stealing from the barrel :)