Cocked up with dried sloes for sloe gin

[Deleted User]

Help!!

I make a lot of flavoured boozes. My general recipe is 2lb fruit, 1lb sugar and litre of spirits. I have had many sucessses this way.

BUT earlier this year I wanted to make Sloe Gin. Sloes are always really difficult for me to come by - I don't know ANY bushes near me where I can pick them so I bought some dried sloes from a homebrew shop. Put 500g of dried sloes in my gin with 1lb sugar.

They have now gone grey and murkey. Not the wonderful colour I expected them to go like proper sloe gin. I have left them 6 months and no avail. I expected them to plump out with the gin (like dried stuff does with water) then for the natural juices to go into the gin.

It hasn't happened and I don't want to waste the gin. If I buy more dried sloes what should I do to them first - should I have presoacked them in boiling water??

Any ideas welcome. I dont want to waste the gin. It was for Xmas pressies (not now!). Thankfully I have the orange and cinnamon vodka and the cherry brandy still on for gifts but this would have completed the set.

[Deleted User]

Sorry for the shameless bump but does anyone have any advice??

Fruball

I have no idea - can you go back to the homebrew shop and show them - perhaps the sloes were no good

Seakay

I don't know from my own experience, but this thread seems to imply that while many are doubtful the only definite report says that dried sloes work:
http://www.sloe.biz/pip/viewtopic.php?t=132&sid=09347f5a2796385150ec6c7e3725a693
This being the case I think that you should definitely return to you homebrew shop, preferably with your sloe gin to show them. Most homebrew shops are independents making a precarious living; my experience is that they are staffed by customer-friendly enthusiasts who want to help, so I would take the attitude of " this is what I did, this is what happened, what do you reckon?" in the first instance, rather than launching into complaint mode straight off!

jennybb

I guess you could strain the gin and use something else - damsons are good - but it's probably too late now.

Can I ask what bottles you use for presents? I am doing the same this year - but struggling to find a cheap supplier who will ship smaller quantities of bottles of a suitable size.

moanymoany

What does it taste like?

Seakay

jennybb wrote: »

I guess you could strain the gin and use something else - damsons are good - but it's probably too late now.

Can I ask what bottles you use for presents? I am doing the same this year - but struggling to find a cheap supplier who will ship smaller quantities of bottles of a suitable size.

I know that you didn't ask me the question, but I often find pretty bottles in charity shops.

pol

It doesn't work with dried sloes. I left some in vodka once for 12 months without any luck. I've even tried making wine with them, but they don't plump up much.
The only thing you can do is strain it and get some of those big plums that are out at the moment and use those. It won't taste quite as good as if left for several months, but it will be nice all the same.
pol

mycutesarah

When you use fresh sloes or plums to make sloe gin, the bloom on the fruit is the yeast that acts on the sugar to make alcohol. So when you use dried fruit, the bloom has proabably been killed in the drying process so there is no yeast to work its magic.

If you're going to retry with dried fruit you could try adding some wine yeast to help fermentation, but I wouldn't reuse the gin from the old batch as the moulds will probably kill the fresh yeast.

Wild sloes fruit around September/ October depending how far north you are. Sloe gin is therefore nicely matured in time to give as Xmas presents!

Swan_2

mycutesarah wrote: »

When you use fresh sloes or plums to make sloe gin, the bloom on the fruit is the yeast that acts on the sugar to make alcohol. So when you use dried fruit, the bloom has proabably been killed in the drying process so there is no yeast to work its magic

do you mean making 'sloe gin' by fermenting your own ingredients from scratch?

I don't think that's what the OP was doing, I'm thinking their recipe would work by the ingredients amalgamating & the flavours maturing
wouldn't the alcohol content of the gin + the high sugar concentration prevent fermentation taking place?


shelvis, I've no idea what's up with the dried sloes, but as Seakay suggests, another visit to the home brew shop seems like a good idea

good luck

Pink.

Hi shelvis,

I have never used dried sloes but I found this link that may help.

Pink