Sloe Gin

Rather than being a detailed recipe, this is more a rough guide to the method. You can easily adapt this dependant to your personal preferences such as sweetness, or even 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).
• 150 - 250 grams 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, 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 before going into the oven and sterilise 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 through the skin of each sloe, pop them into your bottle or jar. Do this until you’ve filled half bottle or jar.
• Add sugar. 150 grams for sweetness, 250 grams + for teeth 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 8-10 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 re-bottled 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!