Sloe Gin Recipe

Rather than being a detailed recipe, this is more a rough guide to the method. You can easily adapt this depending on your personal preferences, or use damsons or plums instead of sloes, or use vodka instead of gin!

Ingredients (to make about a litre)

• Half a litre of gin.
• Enough sloes to fill the other half litre (by volume).
• 5-9oz (150-250g) caster sugar, depending on taste.

Equipment

• 1 litre bottle or preserving jar with an airtight sealed lid (with enough room in neck to push through sloes).
• A thorn from your sloe bush, a wooden cocktail stick or a table fork (a silver fork is traditional).

Method

• Sterilise your bottle or jar by first washing in soapy water and drying thoroughly then putting in a low oven for 20 minutes or so. If your bottle or jar has a rubber seal remove it before the jar goes in the oven and sterilise seal by plunging into boiling water.
• Now prick each individual sloe a few times with a thorn from your sloe bush, a cocktail stick or a table fork (quickest). Be prepared for mess and lots of sloe juice!
• Once you’ve pricked the skin of each sloe, pop them into your bottle or jar. Do this until you’ve filled half the bottle or jar.
• Add sugar. 5 oz (150g) for sweetness, 9 oz (250g)+ for tooth-rottingly sweet (but tasty).
• Fill the rest of the bottle or jar with your gin.
• Seal and then give a good shake. Store in a cool, dry place. You’ll need to shake your fermenting sloe gin about once a day for the first week of fermentation. Then it’s just once a week for the remaining 8–12 weeks.
• After 8–12 weeks, open and pour through a muslin cloth or similar to remove the sloes and any sediment; the resultant liquor can then be drunk immediately or rebottled, and will keep for up to 12 months.
• If you prefer to leave your sloes in the bottle, you’ve got around 6 months to finish your bottle of home-brewed sloe gin!