sloe gin

[falafael]

Wow, i have just tasted for the first time ever, this morning at 02.03am!, my first drink of homemade sloe gin, given to me by a friend at work, and all i can say is bloody hell!!
This drink is beautiful! and strong!......will be definately making some of this next year!!
Anyone have a good recipe for it as welll!!

:thumb:

 

[J_P]

1 lb of sloes
1 pint gin
8 oz sugar

Wash and freeze the sloes, thaw and puncture each sloe with a cocktail stick.

Bung the whole lot in a demijohn for three or four months and then drink

 

[falafael]

Thanks jp, will be making when sloes ready, i even thought about buying a few bushes and growing in the garden, but not sure how long before they start to grow fruit!
Thanks

 

[percival]

for those who don't like gin i believe that the vodka equivalent is good stuff too

 

[Russ H-R]

If you stick a vanilla pod or two in with sloe's it gives the final product a lovely smooth finish! :grin:

Russ

 

[Wez]

I was fortunate enough to try a bottle of J_P's Sloe Gin - it was lovely

 

[NickW]

Does any fermentation actually occur?

As I presume all that 40%ABV of alcohol will halt any fermentation that could have occured?

What actually happens?

 

[J_P]

What actually happens?

The gin simply gets sweetened by the sugar and flavoured by the sloes

 

[NickW]

Ah!

What do you reckon is the final ABV?

 

[Wez]

As no fermentation is taking place the ABV will be 40%

 

[NickW]

Perhaps slightly less than 40%ABV as you are adding more stuff to the mix?

 

[falafael]

ah yes, but the taste is very good, will be sloeing this year, and looking into damsons as well

 

[NickW]

What are sloes? And where can I get them?

 

[percival]

i dunno if you can buy sloe berries, i don't even know if you can get them dried and reconstitute them. if so you could ask your homebrew shop.

good ole wikipaedia has pics and info

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_spinosa

you'll know if you got the right thing by eating one. it'll do the most bizarre thing to your mouth, suck all the moisture out immediately and make you wish you hadn't done it!

Best place to find them, like rosehips, elderberry and to a an extent blackberry, country lanes, hedgerows etc

 

[J_P]

Keep your eyes out in a couple of months time as the sloe (blackthorn) gets flowers before it gets leaves, the bushes will be covered in small white flowers before any of the other trees have leaves on them. Make a note of where you've seen them and go back September October time and pick the sloes.

Late frosts will often nip the flowers off the bush before they are fertilised resulting in a lack of sloes.