Cocked up with dried sloes for sloe gin

Penelope_Penguin

shelvis wrote: »

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.

Tell us where you are, and maybe someone near you can PM details of where sloes can be found.

Penny. x

[Deleted User]

Thanks guys. I might have to give this batch up as a bad job - it's too heavy to take to homebrew shop and I don't fancy buying more sloes after looking at those links. I *might* strain the gin and get some damsons or somthing then and save it till after the baby is born and drink it myself!!

By the way as for bottles I get them from Ikea. They have a grolsh type lid and are 99p.

Phillfloyd

I know this is an old thread but I've searched for a dried Sloe Gin recipe but to no avail.
I think/hope the reason the Sloes from shelvis turned grey and murky are from not giving them a damn good washing and taking and pieces of muck and corruption out of the contents of the bag.
I put the Sloes (washed and rinsed in a colander) into a kilner jar, topped up with water and gave them a very good shake to loosen more debris and unwanted surprises. The water in the kilner jar was indeed grey and murky.
I repeated this a couple of times until the water was clear.


I have 500g of dried sloes and a Sunday with time on my hands.
After soaking the Sloes for a few hours in sugar water with a little bit of Absinthe (1/4 of a pint) the Sloes weighed about 700g

I then rinsed the absinthe soaked Sloes thoroughly and cleaned any debris from the kilner jar and soaked them in sugar water overnight in the fridge.

In the morning the sloes looked healthy and the water looked clear (a reddish colour but not murky)
I weighed the Sloes and they were about 800g.
I split the Sloes into 2 equal weights and put one lot in a 750ml bottle
and one into a litre bottle.

I used 150g white sugar in the 750ml bottle
I used 100g of white sugar and 150g of light brown sugar in the litre bottle.
I will turn once a day for a week until the sugar dissolves and then turn once a week for the next 3 months, after which i'll drain the sloes from the gin and then let the gin mellow.
I'll keep a log on here for results.

kinkyjinks

Phillfloyd wrote: »

I have 500g of dried sloes and a Sunday with time on my hands.
After soaking the Sloes for a few hours in sugar water with a little bit of Absinthe (1/4 of a pint) the Sloes weighed about 700g

I then rinsed the absinthe soaked Sloes thoroughly and cleaned any debris from the kilner jar and soaked them in sugar water overnight in the fridge.

In the morning the sloes looked healthy and the water looked clear (a reddish colour but not murky)
I weighed the Sloes and they were about 800g.
I split the Sloes into 2 equal weights and put one lot in a 750ml bottle
and one into a litre bottle.

I used 150g white sugar in the 750ml bottle
I used 100g of white sugar and 150g of light brown sugar in the litre bottle.
I will turn once a day for a week until the sugar dissolves and then turn once a week for the next 3 months, after which i'll drain the sloes from the gin and then let the gin mellow.
I'll keep a log on here for results.

I'll watch with interest because rehydrating them makes complete sense. Wish I'd thought of it I made sloe vodka a couple of years ago with dried sloes and it was vile.

twistedhazel

Hi Guys (and indeedy Gals) I'm going to have a go at making some fruit flavoured spirits for Christmas presents as this seems a great idea. My question is 2 fold, firstly what other combinations would be good to try, I have reasonably adventurous friends so we'll have a bash at anything which sounds like it might be good. Secondly the OP said that she did Orange and Cinnamon Vodka, anyone have an educated guess as to what sort of amount of cinnamon I'd need to try?
Cheers for any help - ideas.

Pink.

twistedhazel wrote: »

Hi Guys (and indeedy Gals) I'm going to have a go at making some fruit flavoured spirits for Christmas presents as this seems a great idea. My question is 2 fold, firstly what other combinations would be good to try, I have reasonably adventurous friends so we'll have a bash at anything which sounds like it might be good. Secondly the OP said that she did Orange and Cinnamon Vodka, anyone have an educated guess as to what sort of amount of cinnamon I'd need to try?
Cheers for any help - ideas.

Hi twistedhazel,

I can't help with your cinnamon question but these threads have recipes that may help with other drinks you could make:

flavoured vodka and other alcoholic drinks

make your own christmas booze!!

Pink

Phillfloyd

Well i'm just over two weeks into my dried sloe gin experiment and things seem to be going well, the gin has changed colour to an orangey/red.
It has not gone grey, murky, mushy or horrible at all, their are a few very small bits floating around in the bottle but nothing really, and nothing that would put me off drinking it when ready.
The sloes seem to be holding their structure and are looking healthy.
So without wanting to tempt fate i'm confident with the right preparation dried sloe gin is goona be goood.
I'm also making at the moment
Blueberry Gin
Cherry Gin
using the same amount of sugar as i used for the dried sloe gin, but the fruit was fresh.
After 3 months i intend to use the blueberries in some whisky and the cherries in some brandy.
WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG?

Phillfloyd

twistedhazel wrote: »

Hi Guys (and indeedy Gals) I'm going to have a go at making some fruit flavoured spirits for Christmas presents as this seems a great idea. My question is 2 fold, firstly what other combinations would be good to try, I have reasonably adventurous friends so we'll have a bash at anything which sounds like it might be good. Secondly the OP said that she did Orange and Cinnamon Vodka, anyone have an educated guess as to what sort of amount of cinnamon I'd need to try?
Cheers for any help - ideas.

Try using a 12cm stick of cinnamon in a bottle of vodka and be patient

bobrey

[FONT=&quot]Recipe for Sloe Gin with Dried Sloes[/FONT][FONT=&quot]Ingredients:-[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] 500gm Dried Sloes[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT][FONT=&quot]250gm Caster Sugar[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] 250ml Warm Filtered or Bottled Spring Water[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]1 Litre of Gin[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Equipment:-[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] 1 x half gallon Pickle Jar with twist off lid[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] 2 x 500ml Oval Glass Sloe Gin Costalata Bottle[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]or 4 x 250ml Swing Top Clear Costalata Bottles[/FONT]



[FONT=&quot]Method:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] Submerge the dried sloes for several hours in a small quantity of warm water, just enough so they become hydrated and plumped out. Keep any residual water. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] Don’t use Gin to soak the sloes! as this will kill the Enzymes retained in the skins and reduce the effectiveness of the essential alcohol production when combined with the sugar. [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Now treat as normal sloes in your recipe and add any remaining sloe infused water saved from the hydration process. Ensure the hydrated sloes are ready to give up their juice and enzymes, pricking the skins may benefit this procedure but may not be as essential as with freshly picked thick skinned Sloes from the hedgerow.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Put the sloes with the residual water into a sterilised Half Gallon Jar, pour in the caster sugar and the Gin, seal tightly and shake well. Store in a cool dark place and shake every other day for a week then shake once a week for two months. The Sloe Gin will now be a beautiful dark red colour and ready to drink. It will age gracefully so try to leave some [/FONT][FONT=&quot]for enjoyment in the Summer months too![/FONT]

bearlyonline

This is a load of b****x. There is nothing wrong with dried sloes for making sloe gin or sloe vodka. It is a mistake to believe that there is yeast in the bloom on fresh sloes that will affect fermentation. When you put neat gin on to sloes and sugar, the sheer quantity of alcohol already present will immediately kill any yeasty presence on the sloes, and there will be no fermentation. What you get is flavour transfer from the fruit to the alcohol. Cook dried sloes gently and long in water, keep adding more water until you have a strong-smelling (fruity) potful of semi-rehydrated sloes with minimal liquid. You will never succeed in rehydrating completely, but you will get a potful of partly rehydrated/boiled fruit. Add this to your sloe gin/vodka mix. You will find that the dried sloes impart a more powerful and vanilla-toned flavour to your sloe gin, which I love!