Sloe Gin recipes

Monikieman

Full Member
Jun 17, 2013
915
11
Monikie, Angus
I did a new recipe/method last year and it worked a treat. The secret is NOT to add sugar to the mix at the start.

I did find a couple of threads arguing about this saying it was the opposite effect but if you think about it then it makes sense.

Plain alcohol, vodka/gin is going to extract more flavour if it's neat and not diluted with sugar. If making a tincture you use really strong alcohol.

So, 2l plastic bottle, bung in 1lb of sloes that have been in your freezer (real contraversial now but I don't ***** them with a silver pin handed down for 7 generations or using a thorn from the bush. Why? Because where they were removed from the bush/stalk is a .........HOLE......so why?)

Leave for 3 months (or 2 or until you can't wait and need it).

2 cups of sugar in a pot, half cup water and boil for 10 mins. A chemist will be allong soon to explain the changes but in my world the sucrose changes to fructose or something like that.

Then you mix some sugar water into the sloe gin mix.

Berries apparently range from soor to unable to open your lips for 10 seconds soor. So, you can adjust the flavour to your liking or indeed make 2 variations of sweetness.

I did a version with vodka and my wife said it tasted of almonds. Apparently it's a cyanide like compound found in seeds/stones (perfectly safe) that does it. You don't get that taste with the gin as the junioer covers it.

Hope this helps but it definately works.
 
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Robson Valley

On a new journey
Nov 24, 2014
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Sucrose is a disaccharide = 2 6-carbon sugars, glucose and fructose, joined together.
I would not expect simple boiling to break them apart. I'd predict the boiling to ensure that
all of the sucrose molecules are fully loaded with water molecules (as opposed to becoming attached to anything else.)

Freezing fruit is a good trick = the slowly developing ice crystals poke holes in all of the cells walls.
This makes juice extraction somewhat easier. Good example is rhubarb wine, aka skull-buster.
 

daveO

Native
Jun 22, 2009
1,459
525
South Wales
Damsons make a superior gin in my opinion. I also like to use raw cane sugar. These days though I substitute the sloes for blackberries and swap the gin for whisky, makes a much better sloe gin and perfect in a winter hip flask.
 

crosslandkelly

Full Member
Jun 9, 2009
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North West London
Sucrose is a disaccharide = 2 6-carbon sugars, glucose and fructose, joined together.
I would not expect simple boiling to break them apart. I'd predict the boiling to ensure that
all of the sucrose molecules are fully loaded with water molecules (as opposed to becoming attached to anything else.)

Freezing fruit is a good trick = the slowly developing ice crystals poke holes in all of the cells walls.
This makes juice extraction somewhat easier. Good example is rhubarb wine, aka skull-buster.

I freeze all my fruits before infusing.
 

Robson Valley

On a new journey
Nov 24, 2014
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Yup. Freezing is a good plan. Liquid movements in and out are so much faster and efficient.

At the same time, I can believe that freezing does something to muffle the fruit flavor.
Not sure what that is but I do sense a difference to fresh.
 

Monikieman

Full Member
Jun 17, 2013
915
11
Monikie, Angus
did blueberry bacardi one year. read somewhere to only leave berries in for 3 months as stone imparts bitterness.

not too tastey to begin with but once forgotten about and found 3 years later it was like sherry:)
 

Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
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Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
Take a bottle of good Vodka. Swedish, Finnish or Russian.
Freeze the Sloan berries. ***** them.
Open bottle, pour a glass. Drink it.
Put berries inside the bottle.
Close. Let stand in a south facing widow for some weeks.

Black berry vodka does not taste much.


Try the best medicine for colds. Pepper Vodka.

Whole Black peppers, maybe 30 or so. Take a slug from bottle, put in the berries.
Weeks later you have Good Medicine.

Flavouring alcohol was my hobby for many years. Stopped drinking hard alcohol 2 years ago.

Local friends told me that infusing Vodka with a Cannabis leaves makes a good shot. Herbal.
 
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Robson Valley

On a new journey
Nov 24, 2014
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There's potassium cyanide or sodium cyanide in the pits in stone fruits (cherries, peaches, apricots and so forth.)
That's what imparts the bitterness. Not in my food.

Nobody's life was ever improved with alcohol. Take it easy.
 

Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
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My life has improved removing Cigarettes and hard Alcohol.

But I miss the flavouring.....

Dad taught me loads of herbs to flavor Vodka with, and to make it medicinal.

Juniper is nice flavouring too. Taste better than Gin.

Now I only buy certain alcohols and wines to keep, to be inherited by my son.
Last buy was 2 bottles of Appleton's Joy rum.
 
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Robson Valley

On a new journey
Nov 24, 2014
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Canada makes a gin! Flavored with a whole variety of herb things from Canada's Arctic district.
Ungava (gee, I wonder how it got that name?)
However a 750ml bottle is about $35.00 and there are no refunds if I don't like it.

Dry vermouth (they are all different) on ice with a slice of orange or lemon.
Every different kind of orange and lemon imparts a different taste to the dry vermouth.
One glass of red wine (Chile) and that's it.

I finally decided that smoking was both stupid and expensive so I quit.
That craving for a smoke, though, won't quit until the day I die.
 

Robson Valley

On a new journey
Nov 24, 2014
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What are sloes? Some sort of wild small fruits? I think there was sloe gin in out liquor stores but I've never tried it.
You need to try a "Logger's Lunch." Cheap Canadian rye whiskey on ice.
 

Nice65

Brilliant!
Apr 16, 2009
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W.Sussex
What are sloes? Some sort of wild small fruits? I think there was sloe gin in out liquor stores but I've never tried it.
You need to try a "Logger's Lunch." Cheap Canadian rye whiskey on ice.

Small plums. So sharp to the taste they pucker your lips and give you instant dry mouth. Basically a fairly inedible but prolific fruit this time of year. I like Bullace better, it's somewhere between the Blackthorn sloes and a plum like Damson, but not as easy to put in a bottle.
 

Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
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Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
Sloe is in the genus Prunus. Think bush with hellish spines. Fruit is like tiny, maybe 1cm across, prunes. Round. Grow in clusters close to the wood.
Dark blue/ black.
Incredibly sour and astringent taste, improves after first frost.
Juice can be used fir jellies, steeping in Alcohol.

Makes a an excellent hedge, as no human can penetrate it.
 

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