Superb sloe vodka recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Liqueurs | 130 comments
Sloe vodka on day one
We have found that most fruit recipes work equally well with gin or vodka. With a few exceptions. Raspberry gin is sublime and dessert gooseberry vodka is to kill for. Their cousins, Raspberry vodka and dessert gooseberry gin are companiable and gluggable but not the super stars of the cocktail cabinet.
We traditionally always make sloe gin. Lots of it. This year I has so many sloes that I decided to give sloe vodka a whirl. A litre of vodka made two 750ml bottles of grog. One for the cellar and one for testing and tasting.
I need to clear a space on the shelves in the barn to put our sloe gin and vodka out of reach. When I do this, it matures quietly, without being disturbed. I haven’t had time to do his so our kitchen side looks like a sloe liqueur drinker’s paradise. It has also had an impact on using the toaster which sits behind the bottles and jars. A careful, crane like movement is needed to operate the toaster.
Late one night, I spotted the sloe vodka on the kitchen side and thought that I’d have a teeny taste. It was wonderful. Clean, crisp, punchy and absolutely delicious. It was barely three weeks old. Made with the sloes that I picked from John’s garden on October 27th.
I had another toot the next night and then waved the bottle in front of Danny’s nose. Then other visitors were introduced to this ambrosia. Reviews were good and glasses refilled.
I am ashamed to announce that our tasting bottle is almost finished but delighted that I tried sloe vodka this year. I hate to admit it but I think that sloe vodka is better than sloe gin.
I had a 800g of sloes in the freezer so Jalopy and I rumbled over to Tesco on Saturday and bought an extra large bottle of medium priced vodka. Made 2 x 75ml bottles as per the above recipe and was left with 570ml of vodka. I added the remaining sloes (336g) and topped up with just over a kilo of sugar. This will produce the really ‘thick’ sloe liqueur that loads of our friends adore. This is the bottle in the photo with the white label. The label is actually the sugar -scary stuff! If we have a super party and a tasting, the sugar lovers will not be left out for years, as they have been in the past. We like the sharp taste of our grog. This bottle will be for sweet toothed visitors only.
If you still have access to sloes try our recipe. You won’t regret it.
I will report back on how the thick sugar solution sloe vodka develops in a few months time!
| Superb sloe vodka recipe |
- 1poud / 500gm of washed sloes
- 4 ounces / 112gm of white granulated sugar
- 2 empty 75cl vodka bottles
- 1 litre of medium quality vodka such as supermarket own brands
- Wash sloes well and discard any bruised or rotten fruit. Prick fruit several times with a fork and place sloes half the sloes in each bottle. I put several sloes in my palm to prick them rather than picking them up one by one.
- Using a funnel, add the sugar and top up with gin to the rim. Always open sugar bags over the sink as sugar tends to get caught in the folds at the top of the bag.
- Shake every day until the sugar is dissolved and then store in a cool, dark place until you can resist it no longer (try to leave for at least three months, we usually let it mature for a year. As you can see from above it was overwhelmingly moreish at three weeks).
- Some people strain the grog (through muslin/jelly bag) after 3 months and bottle it, leaving it mature for six months. We will strain and bottle any that’s left after six moths as I want to try making sloe sherry and slider (farmhouse cider and gin/vodka soaked sloes as recommended into the comments section of our sloe gin posts). Don’t leave the straining process longer than a year; leaving the fruit in too long can spoil the liqueur.
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They are! Picked 11lbs at the weekend, now the fun begins!
sloes are early this year
Brilliant ideas!
hi, does anyone have a recipe for raspberry bacardi? I have a bottle of bacardi and wondered what to do with it as no one drinks it here. thanks
Hi all, to go alongside my collection of raspberry gin, sloe gin, bullace vodka and blackberry gin, I thought I’d experiment with some gooseberry vodka and gin this year. Does anyone have a receipe?? Thanks 🙂
Hi Andy
Gooseberry gin/vodka is basically the same recipe as raspberry gin. I will be posting the recipe up over the weekend. Gooseberry gin/vodka is to die for.
Had a try of my first sloe rum, mmmmmm its as good if not just a bit better than the vodka. also while i was making a brew of sloe vodka i found that i had run ot of white sugar, not up to running to Tesco i found that i had a box of brown sugar cubes so not to bo put off i mad 2 bottles with the brown sugar, ( You have to try this) it has lots more punch than with white and looks better in the glass,,,Not that you will have time to view the product for drinkig it..
Hi All, Well the year has gone fine,made lots and lots of sloe vodka and got a freezer full of sloes to work on. The new brew i have on the go is Sloe Run, only 3 weeks to go and ill have my first glass.
Hi Steve
Last year i just put sloes with my favourite cider – Stowford Press – in the bottle. About quarter bottle of sloes, and left it for a couple of weeks. It tasted really nice.
Mags
can anyone advise me on how to make slider from the sloe berry left overs after decanting ??
Well iv had to bye a freezer just for me sloes, this year has been the best yet. Left work at 4pm to go pick a few blbs of sloes at 6pm im still picking and iv got 20lbs yes 20lbs off the row, more to come this week , i now have 40 bottles set out. YUM