Sloe & Damson Gin

[HRC99]

I thought I was running low on supplies having just made damson gin last year. So it was time to get started on this year's vintage.

I made some damson gin today, having made it with great success last year. I pricked the damsons and put them all into a demi-john with the sugar and cheap gin. Job done.

It took more gin than I'd remembered so I only had half a bottle of gin left for the sloe gin. I've got sloes in my garden so I was going to go and pick them and at least get them started with what little gin I had.

So I went to the cupboard to get out another demi-john to sterilise it and found I still had a full gallon demi-john of sloe gin from a couple of year ago. I'd completely forgotten I had it.

It's bloody delicious too.

Now there's no pressure at all. I can leave the damson gin to mature nicely until after Christmas and pick the sloes next week when I've got the chance to pick up some more gin.

That's my hipflask sorted now for the next year or so for winter league.

Result.


I'll bring some to those coming to Brough next Friday for a tasting.

 

[Herbie]

Nice topic.....My wife just polished off our last bottle of sloe brandy...this one had been left nearly a year and forgotten almost....it tasted fantastic almost with a cherry brandy flavouring.

Two bags of sloe's now wait in the freezer for my attention and Brandy stock has now been replemished...yum!

 

[HRC99]

Sloe brandy. Never tried that. Any good and what's the recipe?

With a gallon of sloe gin in the tank already, maybe this year its time for something new.

 

[GB72]

My Sloe Gin is brewing as well. My local pub (well local until I moved house today) has an annual Sloe Gin competition at Christmas. Anyone can enter and anyone can pay £5.00 to be a judge. All money goes to charity and as there are normally in excess of 25 entries you can get truely hammered on a fiver. Great idea to get people into the pub and raise a bit of money for a good cause.

 

[HRC99]

Anyone do anything different with their recipes other than the usual Sloes, Gin & Sugar? Any secrets passed down from generation to generation to make the ultimate sloe gin?

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Never even tried it. Must be missing out

 

[HRC99]

Never even tried it. Must be missing out

Get yourself up to Brough, East Yorkshire next Friday and you can try some.

 

[Whereditgo]

Never even tried it. Must be missing out

Get yourself up to Brough, East Yorkshire next Friday and you can try some.

Think I might walk there! hic!

 

[Leftie]

Anyone do anything different with their recipes other than the usual Sloes, Gin & Sugar?

Made some blackberry whisky last year - delicious. Makes an ordinary whisky drinkable

In reality, you can get good results using any spirit with most soft (preferably red) fruits or harder fruits suitably pricked.

Just requires a little patience.....

 

[viscount17]

how much difference does the quality of the spirit base make? I can't see using the good stuff but how low can you go?

and is there a general proportion of fruit to sugar? used to be around 4lb fruit/sugar to the gallon when I was making wine.

 

[HRC99]

I have used more expensive spirits and then switched to Aldi/Tesco basic gin with no loss of flavour. The fruit and the sugar overpower any aromatics from more expensive gin.

I used 1lb of sloes, 1/2lb sugar to a bottle of gin.

 

[Leftie]

how much difference does the quality of the spirit base make? I can't see using the good stuff but how low can you go?

and is there a general proportion of fruit to sugar? used to be around 4lb fruit/sugar to the gallon when I was making wine.

It's probably more about the quality of the fruit than the whisky/gin/brandy/vodka. Really any cheap spirit will do to some extent.

Don't get confused between a "liqueur" and home made wine. For a fruit and spirit liqueur, as you already have the alcohol, you only need the sugar to sweeten so only a few ounces per bottle of spirit are required whereas with a country wine you need anywhere between 3 and 4 lbs of sugar per gallon as you are converting the sugar to alcohol.

Hope that helps (hic!)

 

[Leftie]

Just did a quick google...

http://www.fruitliqueurs.co.uk/

Btw, a word of caution. If you want to use a fruit with stones in e.g. cherry, peach, etc, remove the stones first. The stones can affect the flavour quite a bit - cherry for example would give an overpowering almond flavour.

 

[MikeB]

Sloe brandy. Never tried that. Any good and what's the recipe?

With a gallon of sloe gin in the tank already, maybe this year its time for something new.

When you have drained the gin off the sloes just refill the bottle with cheap brandy & more sugar, yummy!