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
Hello everyone
Have just had a cheeky check of my batches of sloe gin – mine is the one with a cinnamon stick for that spicy finish. I am pleased to report that it is pretty darn good, although I am going to add another stick. I had a large jar to fill with a double quantity of ingredients and one stick wasn’t enough. There is no hint of cinnamon, so another one has gone in and I’ll check it in a week, if that has made the difference then I’ll know the ratio of one stick to one set of ingredients is the right one to follow. I also made a batch of sloe syrup with 3lb sloes and 12oz sugar, that is already really very nice indeed. I plan to use some of it in a sauce for venison with caramalised baby shallots, I can’t wait to try it. I picked pricked and bottled on 22nd October, so fab results in just three weeks. Can’t wait till Christmas!
Happy tipples!
Hi Adrian,
Thanks for dropping by. Your arrival was timely as it was just as I was writing today’s post on Pacharan.
What exactly is Queimada?
Looks like the thread that wont die 🙂
Well one for Jose, here in Wales this year in addition to the Sloe Gin I will be making Patxaran (it’s Basque name) as well which should help offset the balance of the shift to Sloe Gin production in Spain. Picking high quality welsh sloes from my own Blackthorn Hedge I am adding 230g to a litre (The Navarra DOC standard) to 1l Spanish Sweet Anais ( dont use Pernod it is made from Star Anais not Aniseed, Ouzo is a good alternative), I badger a mate who is an Easyjet pilot to bring home when he can, I add one pod of vanilla and 4 coffee beans ( using a strong Java bean) and leave for 6 months. .Jose . .I know how cold it gets in Navarra in the Autumn so do you pick after a frost too???
With my own Sloe Gin I add a stick of cinammon or cloves to make for a spicey taste to counter all that sweet sugar
I would also recommend making Queimada from Aqurdiente with slices of apple made on the night you drink it and involving plenty of fire
Hi Pauline,
I am sorry but I don’t have a sloe gin recipe with cinnamon. If you want to use it I would put a small cinnamon stick in the bottle when you first make it. Taste the gin at 2 week intervals and remove the stick when you reckon that you have got the balance right.
Cinnamon is a spice that doesn’t need everything to mature like a clove. What you taste is what you get with cinnamon. Cloves, on the other hand, can take months to meld with the other ingredients.
It would be good to hear how you get on
hi sloe gin makers! will someone please give me the beginners recipe for sloe gin with cinnamon. thanks.
Hi Sam,
Interesting to hear that the later sloes were sweeter.
The lemon gin is wonderful. Don’t forget to remove the bottle if you sell the car.
Raspberry gin is so good that I started growing raspberries three years ago just to make gin. This has paid dividends.
Thanks for dropping by.
we will definately try the sloe sherry this year, it sounds great. the pre frost sloes were picked very early, they were quite hard, so the resulting sloe gin was tart – but waste not want not! we made your lemon gin last night – roll on three years! hoping to make the raspberry gin in the next few days.
Hi Sam,
Thank you so much for reporting on you pre and post frost sloe gin – really useful information. Good idea to use the poorer batch with tonic and ice in the summer!
What a shame about the sloe cider.
Have you tried sloe sherry (lethal- and the bottles have not exploded yet) our recipe is here
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=104
hi,
i found your website yesterday- wow! this is great! we made sloe gin for the first time last year. we made 2 batches, batch1 was picked in september and although a year on it tastes ok, it’s not as smooth as batch2 which we made picking the sloes in late october. batch1 is fab on a hot summers day with tonic and plenty of ice, batch2 served in good company on chilly nights!
someone asked what to do with the spent sloes. we couldn’t stand the idea of throwing them away, so on advice of a friend, we loaded up the demijohns, covered them with more sugar and filled them up to the top with “white lightning cider”. we stirred until the sugar had disolved and then left it for a few weeks. we then poured it into old wine bottles, labelled them and gave them to friends as it tasted really nice. we will NOT be doing this again and i advice you NOT to try it. THE BOTTLES EXPLODED!!! the smell from under the stairs made the whole house smell, and i had to ring round everyone explaining why i had given them homemade bombs!
Hi Debbie,
Good to hear that the sloes are plentiful in your corner of Oxfordshire.
I haven’t tried cinnamon sticks in sloe gin and would love to hear how it turns out when the time comes!