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Produce => Drink .... => Topic started by: reddyreddy on September 12, 2009, 14:20:13
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I picked a kilo of sloes this morning and have washed and sorted through them now, I seem to remember being told that it helps to freeze them before making the sloe gin, is thatmaybe to avoid pricing them - do they burst in the freezer? Surely you could just crush them gently with a potatoe masher before putting them in the jar?
By the way, for anyone who is making sloe gin or has some ready to bottle from last year I read a lovely idea for using the old gin soaked sloes, melt some dark chocolate, mix with the spent sloes and voila, gin soaked sloe chocoalte! mmmm
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What a waste of good chocolate. Sloes do not need pricking or otherwise mutilating and after soaking in gin for 3 months what is left of them is just rubbish. Drain the liquor liqueur then throw the rubbish away.
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Clearly not a Rumtopf fan then Eristic?
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I seived what didnt go through the muslin and used it as ice cream sauce,,,,, in fact you could use it to make sloe gin ripple if you had an ice cream maker..... will have to ask around at work and see if anyone has such a thing I can borrow.....
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Clearly not a Rumtopf fan then Eristic?
I make sloe gin and or sloe vodka every year but I just put a handful of berries and some sugar in an empty spirit bottle and top up with desired grog. After 3 months, all the goodness and flavour has been removed from the berries into the drink and the berries become tasteless junk. Once decanted there is nothing more to gain by leaving any longer so it may as well be drunk over Christmas.
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Hi, I've never heard of freezing them 1st.
I prick a few sloes and then shove them in a bottle with sugar and gin
Happy brewing :D
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ended up freezing them but only because I didn;t have time to make the gin straight away and didn't want all my hard picking to go to waste via rotting fruit! thanks for your replies ;D
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I've heard freezing them helps to mimic the first frost - after which is the traditional time to pick them. Not sure why the frost is important...I pick them earlier to avoid others nicking them!!
I freeze them before defrosting them to add to the gin - if I don't do this then I do prick them, very tedious, hence the freezing...although from the other posts it seems that this may not be necessary!
xx
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I've heard freezing them helps to mimic the first frost - after which is the traditional time to pick them.
Picking the sloes after the first frost may have been good advice in the 19th century but the weather has changed a lot since then but the berries will have fully ripened and dropped off the bushes long before the first frosts nowadays. First frost can sometimes be in January these days with mid to late November the norm. Too late for Christmas.
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One of my uncles take the 'used' sloes and puts them into a (cheap) white wine for a few days. Says the result is delicious.
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One of my uncles take the 'used' sloes and puts them into a (cheap) white wine for a few days. Says the result is delicious.
That's a thought... one of my favourite things to do with sloe gin is to put a shot in a glass of cava, fizzy dry cider (if you're feeling poor) or champagne (if you're feeling rich).... English Kir...... I would be left with less icecream sauce though :(
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I love sloe gin and champagne, we call it a sloegasm!
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I've never ever pricked sloes, and have made quantities of delicious sloe gin for decades.
I am freezing them for the first time this year for convenience. I have read that freezing mimics pricking by bursting the skin, but that is not why I am doing it.
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I made some blackberry gin and some sloe gin a couple of weeks ago. The sloe gin is already starting to taste good. ;D Its my first time making it and I also put the sloes in the freezer. When I took them out of the freezer I could see that their skins had burst. The blackberry gin has a milder softer taste to it but still good....Roll on Christmas!!
Duke
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If you keep tasting them will there be any left by Christmas?? ;) ;)
T.x
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If you keep tasting them will there be any left by Christmas?? ;) ;)
T.x
ooohhhh be quiet you !! :P I have to taste the goods to be sure its good enough to share it!!
Duke ;D
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I've just started off Raspberry Vodka, we could have a good tasting session....... ;) ;)
T. x
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If you keep tasting them will there be any left by Christmas??
That is why you have to make at least 4 bottles:
Pink gin for September.
Red gin for October.
Slow gin in November.
Sloe gin for Christmas.
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I've just started off Raspberry Vodka, we could have a good tasting session....... ;) ;)
T. x
You really didn't want me to read that did you ~ well I did and you will have to let me taste some of it now!! ;D
That is why you have to make at least 4 bottles:
Pink gin for September.
Red gin for October.
Slow gin in November.
Sloe gin for Christmas.
I like this idea Eristic ;D
Duke
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how do you make sloan gin
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Our house made sloe gin every year when we lived in UK, and if we could find the sloes. started way back in about 1945.
Now as sloes don't grow in Ontario, ;-(((( we can no longer do that, but I do have a friend in Rustington Sussex that always makes it, so when we go back to UK to visit we swap a bottle of duty free gin for a bottle of her sloe gin.... :-))))
I do have a couple bottles in the fridge downstairs that I should take a look and taste of they have been there a few years.
Picking the sloes after a frost helps the flavour, a bit like Brussels sprouts and parsnips always better after a frost.
you may find this sight interesting.. qahtan
http://sloe.biz/pip/index.php?sid=a5a0d3e02638170ace8ec0bbb8d2ca91
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Artyme - The 'basic' formula is 500g of Sloes per litre of Gin - Gordon's Export (43% proof is good!). You need sugar to sweeten it - 8oz of castor sugar is about right; if you opt for a demera sugar try 10oz.
Slow skins are very hard - if you're prepared to wait 2 years don't bother with all the pricking and freezing. However if you want to drink it by Christmas its worth doing - it speeds the whole process up. Once you've got the sloes, gin and sugar into an airtight container you need to 'turn it' daily for the first 2 weeks, then weekly for the next 4 weeks then leave it alone in a cool dark place.
Buy a food grade funnel and some filter paper and pour into clean bottles just before Christmas and enjoy over the festive season
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8oz of castor sugar is about right; if you opt for a demera sugar try 10oz.
That's way way too much sugar unless you really want sickly sweet plonk. The berries are not that hard and only take a few weeks for the juices to leak out.
As for leaving it 2 years, I don't know as mine usually just about make it to Christmas. I'm now looking at 2 lovely rosy red bottles that are at least three weeks old and wondering if they ought to be tested or not.
All I do is put sloes in an empty spirit bottle saved for the occasion, with berries coming about a quarter way up, cover with sugar (3-4oz) and shake daily for a few days until sugar is gone. The only hard part is not opening it.
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try adding crushed cloves and a couple of cinnamon sticks ,a nice winter warmer
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I came across the answer to this while reading about something else. Apparently waiting till the first frost or freezing gets rid of bitterness in the berries, so much as Qahtan said. Still only "air frost" here but no ground frosts yet.