Hi all,
I made some sloe gin today and then came on to the site and it seems the 'in' topic atm as 4D_scumpunx and lannyman8 both have posted about making drinks.
N.B. lannyman8 I hope you don't mind me putting this up as it is v. similar to yours but I didn't want to jack your thread...let me know.
Anyway, down to business. Why make sloe gin?! Personally I don't like gin but add a few sloes and a little sugar and KAPPPOOOWWW! its a taste explosion. Also, it's cheap and easy to make and it's nice to see your bottles all lined up over the winter just begging to be drunk!
To make sloe gin you need:
The spare glass bottle is optional as you could just drink half of the gin instead. The gin doesn't have to be anything fancy just a few bottles of the cheap stuff from Aldi or wherever will do as it's the sloes that create the flavour. But this really is all you need, no scales are necessary.
First thing to do is to pour half of the gin into the spare bottle. To get half it's easiest just to keep pouring and checking untill both levels are the same (obviously this only works if the two bottels' dimensions are the same).
Then add the sugar. I had a 500g bag of sugar and marked the quarterly points down the packet, which meant that as I poured the sugar into the bottle I could stop and check the level of the sugar against my markings. And so when I hit my mark and stopped I had poured roughly 125g of sugar into each bottle. This sounds complicated but it isn't..I guess you could use a scale but I like the idea that each bottle is slightly different and it kinda takes the fun out of it and makes it too clinical (IMO).
Then you need to *****/slice the sloes and then put them into the bottle. I didn't bother washing them before hand or anything as I didn't think it to be necessary but if you feel it is then go for it. Keep putting them in until the level of the gin rises to the point where the neck gets thinner. The idea is to leave enough so that when you come to shake it there is enough air/space to make agitation easy/possible. If you leave too small a gap then you'll find it hard to move the sloes around without a lot of hard work. In the pic below I got carried away and put just a few too many in...but you get the idea anyway.
Then make sure the lid's on tight and 'shake it baby' leave for a while and you should end up with something that looks like this -
Then it's just a matter of shaking it daily for about 2 weeks then once a week for a month and then just once a month. After about 6 months you can decant the sloes out as there's not much use in having them in there longer than that. And then... Enjoy.
Hope this helps people who were thinking of making some sloe gin, it really is very easy and the sloes are still around so there's no excuse not to give it a go.
I made some sloe gin today and then came on to the site and it seems the 'in' topic atm as 4D_scumpunx and lannyman8 both have posted about making drinks.
N.B. lannyman8 I hope you don't mind me putting this up as it is v. similar to yours but I didn't want to jack your thread...let me know.
Anyway, down to business. Why make sloe gin?! Personally I don't like gin but add a few sloes and a little sugar and KAPPPOOOWWW! its a taste explosion. Also, it's cheap and easy to make and it's nice to see your bottles all lined up over the winter just begging to be drunk!
To make sloe gin you need:
- sloes
- cheap dry gin
- a knife/fork
- a spare glass bottle
- sugar
The spare glass bottle is optional as you could just drink half of the gin instead. The gin doesn't have to be anything fancy just a few bottles of the cheap stuff from Aldi or wherever will do as it's the sloes that create the flavour. But this really is all you need, no scales are necessary.
First thing to do is to pour half of the gin into the spare bottle. To get half it's easiest just to keep pouring and checking untill both levels are the same (obviously this only works if the two bottels' dimensions are the same).
Then add the sugar. I had a 500g bag of sugar and marked the quarterly points down the packet, which meant that as I poured the sugar into the bottle I could stop and check the level of the sugar against my markings. And so when I hit my mark and stopped I had poured roughly 125g of sugar into each bottle. This sounds complicated but it isn't..I guess you could use a scale but I like the idea that each bottle is slightly different and it kinda takes the fun out of it and makes it too clinical (IMO).
Then you need to *****/slice the sloes and then put them into the bottle. I didn't bother washing them before hand or anything as I didn't think it to be necessary but if you feel it is then go for it. Keep putting them in until the level of the gin rises to the point where the neck gets thinner. The idea is to leave enough so that when you come to shake it there is enough air/space to make agitation easy/possible. If you leave too small a gap then you'll find it hard to move the sloes around without a lot of hard work. In the pic below I got carried away and put just a few too many in...but you get the idea anyway.
Then make sure the lid's on tight and 'shake it baby' leave for a while and you should end up with something that looks like this -
Then it's just a matter of shaking it daily for about 2 weeks then once a week for a month and then just once a month. After about 6 months you can decant the sloes out as there's not much use in having them in there longer than that. And then... Enjoy.
Hope this helps people who were thinking of making some sloe gin, it really is very easy and the sloes are still around so there's no excuse not to give it a go.
