Sloe Gin

kathleenl

I came across this recipe about a month ago from Nigel Deacon's, Diversity website . I have decided to try it and give it to my friends for Christmas.
SLOE GIN
You will find recipes for sloe gin in old winemaking books. Most of them involve collecting sloes and pricking them all over before immersing them in gin. This sounds easy, but when you try it, it's like hard labour. Anyway, my basic recipe is a lot easier:
1) 1 pound sloes
2) 1 pint gin
3) half a pound or sugar, brown or white
So... Pick your sloes, and ensure that they are ripe. I have given the basic recipe above per pint of gin, because it's not cheap; you can increase the amounts in proportion. Put the sloes, freshly-picked, in one pound packs in the freezer, and leave them there for several days, until they are frozen solid. If you look at them at this point, you will see that they have burst, and this is exactly what you want.
Take them from the freezer, loosened so they are not sticking together, and put them into a large jar or bottle into which you will also put the gin and the sugar. Make sure that the bottle you use for this is large enough; it's very annoying to put two ingredients in and then find that the third can't be added. If you're making a large quantity, a winemaking demijohn may be suitable. You can also add some almonds for extra flavour if you wish; you need about a sixth of an ounce for each pint of gin, and they should be chopped. You can also add a couple of cloves if for each pint of gin.
The container in which you are making the sloe gin needs to be shaken every day for about a month, then occasionally for another month; then it can be strained and bottled. A related drink, blackberry gin, is equally good and well worth making. Quantities and method as above.


I wont have any review of this recipe until around Christmas when i get a chance to sample it.
If anyone has tried it can you let me know what its like.

Alun

I make a batch every year, although I always seem to have trouble finding enough sloes here in Ireland. Luckily I'm often over in the UK where for some reason I can always find loads.

Anyway, the quantities I use (which are a bit more useful as they correspond to normal spirits bottle sizes here) are 500g sloes, 250g sugar and 0.75l gin.

I both freeze and prick (there are some who only do one or the other) and use a large 2l Le Parfait preserving jar, which gives plenty of space to give the contents a good shake, and is easy to seal. I shake it daily for 2 weeks, and then once a week afterwards for about 2-3 months.

As for what it tastes like, that's a difficult one to describe. It's certainly nothing like gin at all, that's for sure. My wife hates gin but loves this stuff. It's quite sweet and liqueur like, and is quite aromatic with still a bit of the sour hints of the sloe berries in the background. You'll just have to make some and try! Good luck.

kathleenl

This is going to be my first attempt and i am hoping that it wont be a disaster...:rolleyes:
Just curious! why all the shaking and why do you freeze the slows? I have tonnes of them growing in my place. We grow a lot of blackthorn and whitethorn.

Alun

The freezing is to break down the internal structure of the fruit so that the flavours seep out into the gin better. You'll notice if you freeze soft fruit, like strawberries for example, that when you defrost it they go all soggy. That's because the ice crystals grow inside the fruit and pierce the cell walls, breaking it down.

Back in the days before freezers, they always used to say that you should wait until after the first frost of the year to pick them, but with the weather being the way it is these days, they'd rot on the bushes before that happened!

The shaking thing I'm less sure about, to be honest, but it's probably just to ensure the flavour and colour (sloe gin is a deep red colour that comes from the sloe skins, by the way!) gets distributed evenly.

Unfortunately I've not been able to find any sloes around my way this year .. one favourite haunt seems to have been raided and there is only a handful left.

Could I be so bold as to ask you where you're based, and where this bountiful harvest of sloes could be found? Anywhere near Dublin or North Wicklow by any chance?

the beer revolu

Thread here about Sloe Gin from last year.

kathleenl

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news... I'm from Co. Limerick.

I bought a liter bottle of gin last week and i thought i would have the slows in it before now. How long will i let them in the deep freeze.
by the way if you want a box of slows i can try and send them to you. I will be picking them on Thursday so if i have your address before then i will send you some. How many would you want?

Alun

You only need to leave the sloes in the freezer overnight really, but a few days won't hurt.

Thanks for the offer of sending me some, but I wouldn't want to put you to any trouble. I've got a couple of bottles still left over from last year which will tide me over.

nompere

There was a good piece by Nigel Slater in The Observer Magazine last Sunday about Sloe Gin.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/10/nigel-slater-classic-sloe-gin-recipe

Alun

nompere wrote: »

There was a good piece by Nigel Slater in The Observer Magazine last Sunday about Sloe Gin.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/10/nigel-slater-classic-sloe-gin-recipe

Interesting, especially the suggestion for using it in cooking. I especially like the idea of using it when making gravy. One thing I do sometimes is to steep some raisins or sultanas in a little sloe gin and pour them over vanilla ice cream ... yummm!

Alun

By the way, there's even a complete forum out there dedicated to Sloe Gin and some more obscure variants ...

http://www.sloe.biz/pip/

royan

When my wife and I were visiting a friend in West Sussex a couple of months back we made a good haul, surprisingly early in the year, and brought some back with us; we've been trying to find some good harvesting spots here ever since. They're not easy to see in passing - the trick apparently is to look for the bushes in the spring, when the blossoms are quite distinctive (I need a "mark here" button on the GPS!)

I was eventually directed to some growing a short walk away and last weekend I managed a couple of pounds, which should do us well. More this weekend, perhaps. There seem to be a lot of rather small ones still, yet mixed in with wrinkled dry ones. But then who isn't confused by the weather these days?

What I'm after now is a good deal on the other main ingredient! From what I've read, there's little point in going for the more expensive and "named" brands of gin - the subtle flavours will be completely lost in the magical transformation. Going to go to LIDL and ALDI and see what they have this weekend.

There's plenty of debate about whether the "first frost" has any specific effect - I reckon most likely it's an old folklore to guide you to the right time to pick, but we're giving them a day or so in the freezer anyway.

I'll join the queue behind Alun - if you truly have more than you can find a use for, we'd be happy to help out!

Are these sloes slow? This sloe's slow. Can I make slow gin with sloes, or do I need slow sloes? You have to slow like a sloth to see the glow of a slew of sloes in the hedgerow, I know.

kathleenl

I got a Lt of gin in Donne's Stores for 13.25 its Kinsey Gin. I have never tasted it so i don't know if there is a difference. My son says i should try the sloe's in vodka and see if it makes a difference.

As for looking for sloes. If you drive out the country and call to any farmer, tell them what you are looking for they may let you in to search their bushes. I am saying "may" because of the public liability laws now. You might not be left in to do your search in case of insurance. Otherwise you could drive out some quiet roads and you should have no problem getting them. Just DONT use the wrinckly ones as they are no good, all the flavour is gone from them or so i have been told.;)

Alun

I find the make of gin you use doesn't really make much difference, so you can use the cheapest you can find such as the stuff from Lidl or Aldi. That having been said most gin you find for sale is (only) 37.5% ABV, but there are some gins out there that are much stronger, say 45% or more which can make for a much more 'robust' version of sloe gin. The only snag is that these also end to be 'premium' gins like Tanqueray or Bombay Sapphire, so a) they're expensive and b) it's a waste of some really nice gin which would be better appreciated with a splash of tonic and a lime slice I once found some good strong gin in Tesco .. it was a Tesco own brand and wasn't too much more expensive than a bottle of Gordon's.

kathleenl

I strained my sloe gin today and re bottled it. It is a lovely dark red but it got very thick (syrup like). Is that the right texture.

Alun

kathleenl wrote: »

I strained my sloe gin today and re bottled it.

That sounds a bit too early to me. When did you start it off? For me I'd say 2-3 months would be an absolute minimum, but you can leave it longer, up to, say, 6 months with no problems. Usually, if I start mine at the start of October, I usually don't bottle it until just before Christmas.

It is a lovely dark red but it got very thick (syrup like). Is that the right texture.

The colour sounds just right, and it should be a little syrupy, but not very. What proportions of gin/sugar/sloes did you use in the end?

kathleenl

I used 1lb of sloes
250 grams of sugar
1pt of Gin.

Its been cooking for about 6 weeks. A friend of mine told me that 6 weeks would be fine.... i honestly didn't know. Now i am hoping i haven't messed it up.:(

Alun

kathleenl wrote: »

I used 1lb of sloes
250 grams of sugar
1pt of Gin.

I use 250g sugar to one standard 0.75l bottle of gin which works out at 1.3 pints. The amount of sloes I use is 500g which is as near as dammit to 1lb (454g).

So, it shouldn't be that over sweet judging by the quantities you used, but if you want you could add in the rest of the bottle of gin (if you haven't already drunk it) to reduce the sweetness a little.

Its been cooking for about 6 weeks. A friend of mine told me that 6 weeks would be fine.... i honestly didn't know. Now i am hoping i haven't messed it up.:(

6 weeks is kind of on the edge I'd say. If you still have your sloes it wouldn't do any harm to just pour the sloe gin back in with them (together with the rest of the bottle of gin) and give them another few weeks.

However, the proof of the pudding is in the eating (or drinking in this case) so just try some and see what you think!

mollzer

I found a few Blackthorn bushes near me a while back and finally picked a load of Sloes last Wed (after the first frost), and have 2 lovely jars of sloe gin starting off.
Looking forward to a taste test come Christmas.

Thanks for all the hints & tips here!

neuro-praxis

Any ideas for sourcing sloes? I don't have any bushes to harvest from or friends who can pass them on.

Is there anywhere where I can pay to pick them, or can they be bought anywhere in the Dublin region?

royan

Alun wrote: »

I find the make of gin you use doesn't really make much difference, so you can use the cheapest you can find such as the stuff from Lidl or Aldi.

If you don't mind offending Mr. Lenihan and friends, Sainsbury's Basics 70cl @ £7.89 at Sprucefield yesterday is the best deal I've found yet (£11.27/l = €12.90/l)

royan

We've just made our second batch, this in a 3 litre optic bottle from a pub - 1.5 litres of gin, nearly half a kilo of sugar, and it took all the sloes we've picked so far.

20101027-sloe-gin-optic.jpg

muckety

neuro-praxis wrote: »

Any ideas for sourcing sloes? I don't have any bushes to harvest from or friends who can pass them on.

Is there anywhere where I can pay to pick them, or can they be bought anywhere in the Dublin region?

I haven't seen them for sale - though maybe theres an idea for next year! - if you go up the dublin mountains and search the hedgerows you should find some. Or the nearest countryside to you - look carefully as they are not a huge tree but the blue-black hue from the sloes will give them away. Also be careful of the thorns.

Alun

Finally came across a sloe bush with plenty of fruit down near Hollywood, Co. Wicklow while out on a hike yesterday, so popped over there this morning and picked 2 kilos in no time at all, and there's still plenty there, although some of them are a little hard to reach. They were nice and ripe, and a few had split and gone off a bit, but the ones I picked were nice and big and fat and juicy!

kathleenl

Congratulations on your find. All the ones that were growing near me are all gone. We must be in for a very hard winter, there isn't a haw, slow or crab left on any trees. There was a saying if you have plenty of fruit then you were in for a hard winter.

I've taken the slows out of my gin about a month ago. It was very thick and dark so i had to add some of the left over gin. I will be giving it to my friend in a weeks time.

Let me know how yours turn out.

In case i don't hear from you sooner..... Happy Christmas.... i know its only November.. I'm getting in the mood.

Alun

Unfortunately this batch won't be ready for this Christmas, but luckily I've some of my 2009 "vintage" left over so I can bridge the gap until then. My 2kg of sloes should make a bit over 3 litres, so I may end up giving some away as well. Hope you have a happy Christmas as well

Swampy

Does anywhere sell sloe gin?

royan

We've just started sampling some of the early (September) bottling. Seems promising, at least as far as Sussex sloes goes...
2010-sloe-gin-first-batch-sample.jpg

emc2

royan wrote: »

We've just started sampling some of the early (September) bottling. Seems promising, at least as far as Sussex sloes goes...
2010-sloe-gin-first-batch-sample.jpg

That looks class, I could get sloes this year so have to go with shop bought Sloe Gin (not as nice as home made!).

royan

Seeing them in the hedgerows now. Patience... patience...

No, sorry, run out of patience, have to make an early batch, "first frost" be damned. This spring I kept a good watch out on the local roads and I think I've found a bonanza, so should have the leeway to make several batches without too much fear of the other vultures picking them off

shinikins

Lol, Royan, it must really be an excellent tipple if you can't wait!

We seem to have a surplus of fruit here, Sloes, Haw's and Blackberries, so I'm determined this year to have a go at making my own Sloe Gin and Blakberry liquer. I came across a website with basic methods for making Schnapps and liquers which has quite a few interesting recipes....I think my christmas will be very merry this year!

kathleenl

A year has gone by since i made the slow gin... I dont drink gin or slow gin but i did give it to a friend of mine who hasn't had it for years and she thought it was great. For those of you who are not too sure what it will look like when it's finished. After 6 weeks the gin turned a very dark pink colour, the gin turned to a thick syrup, when i strained the gin away from the slows it came out very thick much like rose hip syrup only a little thicker, it is also VERY sweet. If you don't like really thick and sweet gin then i suggest that you dilute it down a little with some more gin or ice. Regrettable i cannot telly you what it tastes like. The only thing i can say is try to make some your self and taste it at Christmas you might be delightfully surprised at the result. Just remember your slow gin will have to be turned upside down every few days until the time is up. The slows will burst in the mixture so don't be afraid that something has gone wrong, it hasn't and you are well on your way to making something spectacular for Christmas.:rolleyes: