Sloe Gin a Couple of Questions

[k1100t]

I have the River Cottage Preserves and Hedgerow Handbooks, they seem to differ slightly on the amount of sloes and sugar to add to your 600ml of gin. Form doing a bit of googling, it would seem like they both produce a rather sweet result, being a 1:1 sole:sugar ratio. I've never made sloe gin before, so have no idea how sweet this is going to be. Can anyone give me any advice on a suitable ratio of gin:sloes:sugar...? I have 625g of sloes in the freezer ready to go.

Also, what kind and size of container do I need? If I'm using 750ml of gin, how much extra space do the sloes and sugar take up, 250ml, 500ml...?

Thanks,

Bob.

[boingy]

I think 1:1 is traditional but we put less sugar in than that, probably about 75% of the amount but we never really measure it.
Buy one bottle of gin (cheap stuff is fine), pour half of it into another bottle (empty wine bottle) then top up both with sloes and sugar. You could do one with more or less sugar as an experiment. It's not a precise art.

[crafty john]

I made some a couple of years back and I made a note to my self not to add any sugar until it has finished infusing, it was like cough mixture, just add your gin to the sloes in a large preserving jar and when it has taken all the flavour from the sloes just add sugar bit by bit to taste. Also freeze your sloes first, cos sloe gin is best when the sloes have had a frost.

[a-slayer]

Put in less sugar, you can always put more in later but you can't take it out.
I always found that recipes tend to have too much sugar and put in less myself.

[fatbloke]

I do a pint of gin, a pound of sloes and the original recipe said 8oz of sugar.

My first go was the gin and sugar as above but only 4oz of sugar, that was still quite sharp/sherbetty/dry so I upped it to 6oz of sugar.

Nice. .... Sweet yes but not mega....

Some cinnamon, a few cloves, cracked allspice.....

[k1100t]

Smashing, thanks for the replies! I found an article on the Spismiths website that also said not to add any sugar until the gin and sloes have macerated, so that looks like a plan...

Cheers,

Bob.

[Dr. Dextrin]

One litre of gin, 1lb 8oz frozen sloes, 8oz sugar (sorry about the mixed units). As others have said, you can add sugar at the end, but I find that to be quite sweet enough.

You can also add cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, etc., etc., but that's down to personal taste and best done by experimenting.

I've done mine in demijohns in previous years (they're considerably too big, but no matter). However, I'm about to invest in some Kilner-style preserving jars so I can do smaller batches and experiment with the recipe a bit.

One issue I've had after storing sloe gin for a while (which seems to improve it quite a bit) is that pectin settles out and forms a jelly-like deposit. So one batch this year is going to get a little pectic enzyme added...

[mentaldental]

I made some a couple of years back and I made a note to my self not to add any sugar until it has finished infusing, it was like cough mixture, just add your gin to the sloes in a large preserving jar and when it has taken all the flavour from the sloes just add sugar bit by bit to taste. Also freeze your sloes first, cos sloe gin is best when the sloes have had a frost.

I use FAR less sugar than the traditional recipes. I have never tried no sugar because i feel that some sugar might help extract the flavour from the sloes (this may be bollocks). Still is works for CJ so I must give that a try.

The main thing to remember you can ADD sugar later to taste, you cannot REMOVE it. \o use little/no sugar until you remove the sloes and then taste test.

The freezing tip works becuse it breaks down the cell structure of the fruit and allows faster extraction of the flavour and colour without the tedious pricking of the fruit. It can result in the finished product becoming cloudy although this can be filtered out.

/Michael

[charlie]

It's the perfect time for Damsons but too early for Sloes because you want to let them ripen as much as possible on the bush and, traditionally, they should not be picked until after the first frost.

The same effect can be achieved by sticking them in a freezer for a bit.

Life's too short to spend puncturing each berry with a pin but they can be lightly mashed to aid extraction.

Don't, under any circumstances, do what I did on my first attempt and use a hand blender as so much tannin came out of the skins as to completely coat my tongue and mouth and be really astringent.

I also vote for keeping it dryer and using less sugar, about half what is in the recommended in the recipes but it all depends on how much you love the taste of gin or cough medicine. I like to still taste the gin a bit.

Living in the heart of Damson country, of the two commercial brands made locally, Cowmire Hall and Strawberry Bank, I much prefer Cowmire Halls as it is less syrupy. But it's so cheap and easy to make that I would never buy either.

[Ben711200]

I know it's a bit early for them, but I went out picking some a couple days ago and all the trees I came across were good and ripe. They're in the freezer now
I've never measured before, but I'm not keen on really sweet ones. This year I'm going to do (per litre of gin) approx 300g sloes and 100g brown sugar. All personal taste though, I guess.