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
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Hi Keith
The secret of a good sloe gin is the extent to which the very high natural tannin content plus its other constituents have been extracted. I have found that replicating, as perhaps you have above, red wine production by fermenting the sloes on their skins makes an outstanding sloe gin. What you must beware of is that too high a concentration of sugar will kill the yeast and no fermentation will take place.
Layer 2 inches of frozen sloes interspaced with 3 tablespoons of sugar then another 2 inches of sloes and so forth in a fermentation bucket. Add a port wine or high alcohol yeast, probably fermenting out to 14deg. The more technical can measure the specific gravity before and after fermentation to gauge the alcohol content and how much sugar needs to be added.
Stand in a warm place, keep a close eye on fermentation and add small amounts of sugar until fermentation ceases.
Fermenting will of course raise the alcohol content but more importantly it extracts the full flavours of the sloes which other methods fail to do.
I would greatly appreciate the views of an experienced amateur winemaker on this.
Hi Keith,
Thank you so much for adding you recipe and sloe gin making tips to the site. Gradually we are all building a great sloe gin making online resource. This is the Internet at its best.
I’m going to try your method – letting the sugar extract the juices from the sloes before adding the gin. I am also going to make a few more bottles this year so as to have enough to lay down (bottles that is).
Hi
I’ve been making sloe gin for about 30 years. I always put sloes and sugar together and let the sugar extract the juices from the sloes before adding the gin. I then strain the sloes at anywhere between 3 and 6 months. This is how it was done in the recipe I first used, an old one passed down by somebody. I always keep the sloe gin for at least a year but if you can bear to keep it longer, say 5-7 years, it will keep on maturing and changing and you will end up with a wonderfully smooth amber coloured drink very different from the year old variety. You will probably have to filter it again before drinking as it will throw a sediment, even if it appeared clear at the earlier stage.
Hi Paul
Your crumble comment made us roar with laughter. I have tasted ten year old sloe gin, it was wonderful.
Bumper crop this year in North Yorkshire! I know what we will be doing all weekend. Two tips:
1. Never make a crumble with your gin-soaked sloes. I did one year and was unconscious for days afterwards.
2. If you can resist temptation, place a bottle of filtered sloe gin in a cool, dark place for 10 years. Our deep purple-brown vintage is so smooth and mellow. This was of course discovered entirely by mistake!
Hello Mike,
Thank you so much for this recipe. It sounds delicious. Hic!
Another way to make use of gin-soaked fruit is to push out the stones place in a baking tray or other suitable container and cover with a rich dark chocolate.
That sounds delicious, Richard, thanks for your input.
re how to serve it – poured over vanilla ice cream…
Hello Martyn,
So pleased that you are finding the site useful and turning your damson harvest into some really delicious things.
I love this time of year.