Sloe Gin

[bacchus]

Hiyall,

A friend of mine has just been talking about a sloe hunt soon.

Got me thinking about sloe gin :hmm:

The normal recipe is .5 lt gin in a 1lt bottle, topped up with sloes and about 150g of sugar I believe, a bit of aggitation and away you go.

I watched Oz and Hugh Drink to Christmas last year on the BBC, really nice programme for a lover of christmas like me. They had lots of drink recipes, old victorian odd ones, mulled wine, and there was mention of a "special" recipe for sloe gin, but they never went into any detail.

I've been doing a bit of research, I can't find anything other than sloe, gin and sugar.

Alone it is a lovely drink I know - but anyone got any suggestions to zuzz it up a bit?

 

[Baz Chaz]

We make sloe gin and keep it simple it's one of the few drinks that is better for being made simply :thumb:

for 1 litre bottle
approx 400g sloes, about half a bottle..... cut or prick the sloes before bottling
approx 150g granulated sugar
top-up with gin approx 500ml

leave a small gap in the top of the bottle to make it easier to agitate and dissolve sugar when turning, don't really need to zuzz it up a bit really :thumb:

 

[phoenix68]

Dose it neen to be gin with this recipy or do you think vodka would work equaly well.

Cheers Graham

 

[Wez]

I was given a sample of White Rum infused with a vanilla pod and some sugar the other night by Tubby Shaw.....man it was awesome!

 

[phoenix68]

My mouth is watering do you think the tast was down to the flavorings added or the base eg white rum or a combonation of the both.
The reason i ask is ibeenv'e give a few bottles of vodka by a lad i worked with recently and i'm not sure what to make with it i love sloe gin and cherry brandy and would like to do some thing simular.
Ive herd of black berry vodka still can't make my mind up your advice woud be apreciated.

Cheers Graham.

 

[hypnoticmonkey]

Flavoured vodkas are not uncommon... definitely give it a go! Plenty of Sloes around Graham, I get mine from over the marshes!

 

[Alan Clark]

I added a teaspoon per 0.5lt of vanilla extract to the 1.5lts I made last year and it came out rather nice.

 

[granda]

after coming into a couple of bottles of poitin im gonna make some sloe poitin this year

 

[phoenix68]

I think i will try some sloe and some black berry vodka.

Cheers Graham.

 

[Baz Chaz]

Quick way of 'pricking' sloes, saves hours ................

put them on a large tray and use a cheese grater (the four sided type) and roll it over/round with the 'prickly' side of the grater on top of the sloes :thumb:

 

[bacchus]

I know exactly what you mean about not needing to mess with something simple, after years of rubbing god knows what on chicken skin before roasting it, I've just decided now there's nothing better than just a juicy roasted chicken with salt and pepper.

I wasn't thinking of shoving cloves and marshmallows and god knows what else into it (by default someone normally suggests chillies - what is wrong with these people :grin: ). Vanilla Extract though... nice, nice and sublte, I'll give that a go.

Incidently, I will be posting this elsewhere but if anyone's interested my loical Netto is doing 1lt swing top "Grolsch" style wine bottles for £1.29 each. I got me 2 crates this morning - pretty good buy I thought.

 

[Hawks]

I added a little almond essence to my sloe gin last year - and mighty fine it was to..

1lb 14oz sloes ( chucked in the freezer for 2 days to save pricking etc)
1.5 ltrs of gin
12 oz of unrefined granulated sugar
4 drops of almond essence

all chucked into a storage jar and turned upside down briefly every day until the sugar has dissolved. Then leave for as long as possible.

 

[Baz Chaz]

........... Then leave for as long as possible.

Thats the hard part :whistle:

 

[Hawks]

........... Then leave for as long as possible.

Thats the hard part :whistle:

I hid a half bottle ( well SWMBO did ) of it which got found last week - it had improved :thumb: . This year I'm going to try and get more sloes... :party:

 

[Grumpy Jack]

Dose it neen to be gin with this recipy or do you think vodka would work equaly well.

Cheers Graham

I had a horrendous encounter... :sick: with some very fine Sloe Vodka made by a local Polish woman at a New Year party a few years ago... Yes, it definately works, just make sure that the last shot you drink isn't off, mine obviously was!
:rofl:

 

[tubby_shaw]

Just noticed this post sorry
The vanilla rum is really simple and as Wez said delicious :thumb:
Take one bottle of white rum, pour a double and drink :whistle:
Take one vanilla pod and make a slit along the length,drop it into the bottle of rum.
Top up the space left in the bottle by the removal of the double :drink: with white granulated table sugar.
Shake daily, drinkable in a fortnight, improves after that (apparently :lol: )

As a far as Vodka goes we had a few blueberries to use so we have a little bit of blueberry vodka :grin:

 

[snail59]

Bramble Vodka.
1lb Blackberrys.
3oz Molasses Sugar
1 Crushed Cinnamon Stick
5 whole cloves
70cl 37.5% Vodka.

Put it all in a Kilner Jar and shake once a day for 3 months.

Strain and bottle.

 

[Tony]

Damn this has got me thinking. I quite often get bottles of spirits bought for me around christmas and they sit in a cupboard here (not a big spirit drinker)... now I know what to do with them!

Oh .. and I have to put this in here ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un0h7xiYyRg&feature=fvsr

Saw him live last year ... unforgettable!

 

[phoenix68]

How can you tell when a sloe is ripe or ready to be used I've been told they need a frost before you should pick them.
I have been out looking at some today they seem like they are starting to go soft how long before the will be ready to pick and use.

Thanks for any help Graham.

PS think I'm going to give up on black berry vodka they seem very poor this year.

 

[bacchus]

How can you tell when a sloe is ripe or ready to be used I've been told they need a frost before you should pick them.
I have been out looking at some today they seem like they are starting to go soft how long before the will be ready to pick and use.

Thanks for any help Graham.

PS think I'm going to give up on black berry vodka they seem very poor this year.

Yeah, good question, been thinking the same. I went out today and saw a couple of bushes, I still can't help pulling one off and chewing it - neeeeaaaaar! just sucks the moisture out of your mouth

Anyhooooo, yes I've heard you should wait for the first frost and/or the last week in September. The other things I've been reading is the very unusefull "it depends where you are in the country". :?

I was going on the advice - they should pull off the bush effortlessly without the need to pull, twist or prise

Can anyone else offer advice, also does it REALLY matter, as long as they're not hard as rocks and green (in both senses of the word) it should be okay yeah?

---------

one last thing, this is a properly naive question - but you DO leave the stones in don't you? I always thought the sloes were just pure fruit, like raspberries or strawberries, but it occured to me today they have a dirty great stone in the middle.

So I presume you seep the (pricked) sloes in the gin, then decant the sloe gin out of what you've steeped in, minus the stones (and any detritus picked up) into what you're drinking it from?