The Great Sloe Gin Challenge – Three variations of our sloe gin recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Liqueurs | 162 comments
Beautiful ripe sloes on the bush in September
“Pick after the first frosts,” advise the traditionalists.
“Pick them in September, before the bushes are stripped bare,” chortle the enthusiastic.
“Pick them now and give them a chilly blast in the freezer, to give the effect of the first frost,” suggest the practical.
There are other questions too. If the sloes are left to mature until the first frosts, do they have a better flavour? Does the quality of gin affect the liqueur? Should one strain gin from the sloes after three months, six months, ever?
I telephoned Gilbert to discuss this multiple conundrum. His advice was simple.
“Whatever you do, write it down on a label and stick it on the bottle. Then, if your brew is superb, you have the recipe. Note the tree, the time of picking, the gin and the amount of sugar and sloes. If you used almond essence, note how much on each label.”
I recalled that the most interesting part of his cellar was the vast liqueur wall. The label on each bottle and demijohn was covered in microscopic notes.
“Remember that the combination of gin, sloes and sugar is always better that the separate ingredients, no matter what you do.”
He is right. sloe gin sipped on a cold winter’s night is deliciously dangerous.
We have decided to run The Cottage Smallholder sloe gin test. We are going to make sloe gin now under laboratory conditions in the Cottage Smallholder kitchen. The sloe gin will by tasted and evaluated by a team of three experienced sloe gin drinkers.
Using the same gin (supermarket medium quality) and the same recipe, we are going to make sloe gin with three batches of sloes harvested from the same tree.
- The first bottle will contain freshly picked sloes, picked now in mid September.
- The second will have fresh sloes picked now but which will have had a night in the freezer.
- After the first frosts we are going to return to the same tree with a ladder to collect the frosted sloes that an average height forager can’t reach. The third bottle will contain these.
We will publish are results in a few months time.
Two years later we published the results of the sloe gin recipe challenge.
Sloe Gin Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1lb/454gm of washed sloes
- 4 ozs/112gm of white granulated sugar
- 1 75cl bottle of medium quality gin
- Sterilised 1 litre (at least) Le Parfait jar or wide necked bottle
- 1 small quarter tsp almond essence
Method:
- Wash sloes well and discard any bruised or rotten fruit. Prick fruit several times with a fork and place sloes in either a large Kilner/Le Parfait jar or a wide necked 1 litre 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.
- Add the almond essence.
- Shake every day until the sugar is dissolved and then store in a cool, dark place until you can resist it no longer (leave for at least three months, we usually let it mature for a year).
- Some people strain the grog (through muslin/jelly bag) after 3 months and bottle it, leaving it mature for six months. We usually strain and bottle after a year. We use some beautiful old heine brandy bottles with cork lids. If you are feeling flush Lakeland sell some pretty bottles here. Don’t leave the straining process any longer than a year; leaving the fruit in too long can spoil the liqueur.
For loads more tricks and tips on making sloe gin see the original sloe gin recipe
Leave a reply
Hi Adrian
Lots of people have experimented with brown sugar. Look at the comments on this post
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/two-recipes-wild-damson-gin-and-sloe-gin-37
If you have a search page facility and type in ‘brown’ – they should leap out.
We have recently started a forum to get over this problem of finding threads. So it might be a good idea to post your question there too.
Hi there i’ve been looking for items regarding sloe gin for ages and this site fits the bill perfectly. I was trying to find out about whether or not brown sugar works with the sloes? i started making sloe gin a few years ago so am quite novice compared to some of your followers! Anyone who has tried using brown sugar, they’re comments would be very welcome… Thanks Adrian
Hi Rosie, I use honey a lot in my liquers, (a bottle of mead once ) just shake it often, (&taste after a month or so (VERY new to computer so forgive,) but I have many MANY liquers in my pantry. I have been making them approx7-8years & experiment A LOT!
Patricia.
Hi Rosie
When I can get out and find some sloes I’m going to try using honey this year. We have plenty from our bees.
Hi Tom
Welcome to the site. Great that you are out and about picking and concocting. Your parents will be delighted at Christmas 🙂
Hello Kate
Great that you like the quince cheese! Your inventiveness is inspirational. Thanks for sharing your recipe for Bramble Brandy later in this thread. And also finding some bottles on line.
Hi Tom,
It’s a very basic recipe based on my mum’s raspberry vodka recipe:
– half a 70cl bottle of brandy;
– 2tbsp sugar (I used golden caster to give it some depth – I love my brown sugars);
– fresh wild blackberries
Add the sugar to the brandy and top up the bottle with blackberries – enough to fill the brandy bottle or saturate the liquid, whichever happens first.
I had very slightly less than half a bottle left so I found that when I added the blackberries I reached a point at which the brandy would struggle to cover the fruit. Just as for sloe gin, try it after a few months to see how sweet it is and if necessary add more sugar.
Hi Kate,
Do you have the recipe that you have used for Bramble Brandy?
I’m very intriuged!
Lesley: was it like one of these?
http://www.easterncorner.com/grape-cluster-bottle-02-details.htm
http://www.easterncorner.com/bottle-grape-details.htm
There are lots of others with grapes on on this site.
Or I found this on ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/LOT-5-COBALT,GREEN,CLEAR-DECORATIVE-GLASS-WINE-BOTTLES_W0QQitemZ220486739635QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20090928?IMSfp=TL090928152003r3841
It’s amazing the things one will do to avoid study!
Hi all. Very interesting reading the various gin experiments. This year I have a multitide of experiments on the go – sloe gin made with half golden caster and half demerara sugar, bramble brandy, bramble rum (using good golden rum) and elderberry and sloe gin (I had loads of cooked elderberries left over after making elderberry jelly so whacked some of them in a half bottle of gin I had spare with some sloes and sugar).
My partner came home to find most of the bottles in our drinks cabinet missing, having been fruited and relocated to a kitchen cupboard!
Tried your damson cheese recipe – very tasty!
Hi there I just wanted to say what a fantastic website this is.
I’m currently on a year out before Uni and am filling my time at the moment with collecting as many sloes, damsons and blackberries as I can and turning them into various tipples, much to my parents horror/glee.. im not quite sure yet!
Thankyou for inspiring me to get out and about and get making.
I’ve experimented this year
I made a batch in August with underripe sloes, honey and brown sugar, it’s pink but delicious, we’re already drinking it as I needed the Kilmer jars for the 8kg of ripe sloes I harvested
I’ve now got a large ‘standard’ recipe batch on, one with brown sugar and one with sugar and spices
honey and brown sugar certainly add a depth