Sloe gin tips please!

Drachenfach

I tried some of mine this weekend with lemonade. It's a bit sweet, even for a sweet tooth like mine. I have topped it up with some more gin and might add some juniper berries and lemon peel to help cut the sweetness.

I shall use less sugar next year!

Miró

Drachenfach wrote: »

I tried some of mine this weekend with lemonade. It's a bit sweet, even for a sweet tooth like mine. I have topped it up with some more gin and might add some juniper berries and lemon peel to help cut the sweetness.

I shall use less sugar next year!

Tried mine too

Mine was too sweet as well so had to have it with tonic water and a slice of lemon to 'tart' it up a bit

poppasmurf_bewdley

I'm still shaking mine every day now, but I haven't put the sugar in yet. Last year I only put in half the recommended amount of sugar, and it was really delicious. I'll try the same again this year, and if it needs more, I can add some.

In this area there was a poor crop of sloes compared to last year, but the holly berries are the best ever, as were the rosehips.

force_ten

MSE_Andrea wrote: »

How's everyone's going?

I'm decanting mine this week ready for a taste test in the office on Thursday! I don't think I'll be short on volunteers

I will be leaving some to store for next Christmas too - I'm looking forward to seeing how much better it is a year on

well mine is still steeping with the sloes, i will run one jar through coffee filters next week and decant into the bottle leave it to settle for a week and then filter again before first drink on christmas eve

when i turned the jars the other day i opened one jar and had a little taste, it tasted like cough mixture sort of like benylin, i said to the missus to have a little taste and she agreed, cough mixture

I have heard about this before but no reason why it tastes like that

looks like our christmas sloe gin fizz could be good for a chesty cough :rotfl::rotfl:

force_ten

well first jar decanted into bottles and i have two 70cl bottles sat on the worktop, i will leave them until next thursday night and then run them through coffee filters again just to catch the last of the sediment from the sloes

we all had a taste of it tonight and the general consensus is it has a cherry taste to it, my daughter said it tastes a bit like cherry tunes, it is actually quite nice but as it has only steeped for three months and hasn't had time to mature in the bottle it is still very fresh

I still have three jars steeping and they will be left for another three months and then when decanted they will be left for around six months in the bottles so 12 months in total, they don't call it slow gin for nothing

clickerty-click

I need to locate a source of sloes,Hubby loves it. Someone on the tele said if you put your sloe gin in the boot of your car then when you are driving round it "shakes" itself, got to be worth a try.

Mojisola

clickerty-click wrote: »

I need to locate a source of sloes,Hubby loves it.

It's a bit late for this year.

Someone on the tele said if you put your sloe gin in the boot of your car then when you are driving round it "shakes" itself, got to be worth a try.

Honestly, that's not necessary. Works just as well kept at home.

Former_MSE_Andrea

A year (almost) on, how did your sloe gins turn out everyone?

Mine did really nicely - I've carried on taste testing at home for research purposes and it's definitely matured since it was first made

We didn't run a Dealshunter blog in the end but as it's sloe-picking season again I've blogged on it here:

Free Christmas drinks? Grab them now, don't be too sloe

DigForVictory

Mum's came up trumps despite her grumbling at the lack of child labour (we'd sit there stabbing them with sewing needles) - LameWolf's tip about the staple remover restored me to her good books!
Youngest scanned a gin label from Lidl & tinkered with it on the computer, so she now has seriously fancy labels on. She's happy, so we can curl up with our preferred tea & relax.

Floss

I foraged a kilo of sloes on Friday, which are in the freezer. We're current drinking 2009 & 2010 batches, with some 2011 damson gin as well. Th longer it can be left, the better it gets.