Sloe Wine

[Tau]

Managed to pick 700g of ripe sloes, very dissapointed that I didn't get more, should never have spoken to people while picking them last year as they were striped clean and it was hard and dangerous work in the thicket to get them.

Anyway used 120g for existing blackberry wines and the rest for a grape and sloe.

Prep': soaked 580g of ripe sloes with 1 camden for most of day, then boiled and simmered until soft and into strong s.steel sieve then mashed with back of tablespoon until only stones left (200g worth) this took nearly an hour. Removed hidden larvae while doing so. Re- boiled and added to 1 kg of disolved sugar and 2 tea bag tea in dj. Then added 1 ltr of welch's purple grape juice. Allowed to cool and added 1tsp nutrient and pectolase, 1/2 tsp of citric and harris yeast (18%). Fermenting away.

 

[Tau]

Racked off must today had finished primary fermentation, had forgotten about it, the musty smell of sloes will dissipate as secondary moves on a bit. Haven't added a camden as it really needs secondary.

 

[GB2014]

Good recipe, I'll bear it in mind once I've gathered the fruit, we have just had our first frost in North Yorkshire so I have been scouting out the sloes but I'd say it's still slightly early - where are you?

 

[Tau]

Used 3lb with 240g of red grape concentrate last year, forgot to add a 2nd batch of 500g so only turned out at 9% so had to drink. Was fantastic mind you one the best country wines I've had. Sloes vary throughout the country, I picked mine at beginning of september, other places they are just comming into ripeness in same area. It really depends on direction they face. First batch the hedgerow was south west facing so got sun all day and was near ocean so slightly warmer than others I've picked a few hundred metres above sea level.

 

[Tau]

Racked, after addings finings a couple of days ago, onto 1/2 camden and topped up with 2 rebush tea bag tea and additional finings added. Will try and forget about this for a while for malo/latic to take place.

 

[Tau]

Bottled yesterday, clear, after 8 months since october racking, I can hardly notice any differnece, slightly more sloe comming through but the drying taste is as present as ever. There was some small skin fragments at the bottom which might have been the reason or not. Another 6 months or more in the bottle before a taste test, plus will have keep an eye on the corks if malo/latic takes place.

 

[Cwrw666]

Our blackthorn bushes are absolutely covered with sloes this year, unlike last year when there was hardly any. So this year I'm looking forward to lots of sloe wine and sloe gin. Should be ripe at the end of August here.

recipe I use is:
4lb sloes plus a splash of tea for some tannin.
Pour on about a 6 pints of boiling water and let it soak for a week after which the wild yeasts are fizzing away like mad.
Strain off the fruit and stir in 2 1/2 Lb of sugar and make it up to a gallon with boiled water and add some dried wine yeast. Leave it in a fermenting bin for at least a week till fermentation dies down and then into a demijohn for at least 6 weeks.

Makes a fantastic wine just like that - loads of flavour, plenty of body too, no need to add grape juice.
For other fruit wines just substitute the fruit for the sloes - blackberries, raspberries, elderberries (add a few cloves to this one) all work well.

 

[Tau]

Just noticed that I had topped up with redbush teabag tea, might be the cause of slowing malo/lactic and oxidation.