One for the seasoned sloe gin experts 😉

I picked a fair few sloe's yesterday for my first batch of sloe gin, i had planned to get them earlier, so was i a little late in picking them…?

Anyway, most of the info i've found seems to suggest they are between 10-15mm dia. most of the ones i've picked are in the lower region of this range, a few slightly smaller, does this matter?
Also i found one bush where they were a fair bit larger, the leaves were too, they still had the characteristic thorns, just alot bigger leaves and berries.
Are there different varities of the sloe/blackthorn?

Sloe berries tend to be small, hard and more bitter in a very dry year (or in this case, perhaps if that bush was in a poor spot??)

The larger, sweeter berries are most likely damsons

Damsons don't have thorns on them though do they…?

no damsons are bigger no thorns, but slows do

slows are small but worth the time to collect, got two bottles on the brew this year 😉

Sloes do vary a lot in size. I've found blackthorn with none all the way through to sub-damson in size. They just have that natural variation. You often find the more mature blackthorn has bigger leaves and fruit.

Pick them, squish them and get them into the gin! They all taste good after a few months in alcohol.

I got my 4th bottle going last w/e 🙂 Still got a couple of kg of sloes left in the freezer too.

Bumper crop this yr, I gave up on one monster bush near me. Had picked 1.7kg and you wouldn't have known I'd been there.

couple of kg of sloes

Wow, thats some crop, we struggled this year, looks like everyone round here is onto them this year.

Also got 5 gallons or red wine and scrumpy on the go too, xmas is going to be a blurr this year.

Going back to Damsons, anyone made gin/wine from them, bet it has a bit of a kick?

>Going back to Damsons, anyone made gin/wine from them, bet it has a bit of a kick?

Got a Damson gin bottle on the go also 🙂 First time I've made it so I just used the sloe gin recipe but scaled down the sugar addition quite a bit as the damsons are much sweeter.

How much sugar are we saying then?
Most recipes i've seen say to use between 4-5 oz per half litre of gin.
I don't want it overly sweet so i've erred on the side of caution and made one bottle with 4oz of sugar and one with 2oz, that seem sensible?

Mine works out to 500ml of gin to 250g of sloes and 150g of sugar. 11 bottles of gin in the barrel so far and more to go! w00t! Sloe gin is supposed to be fairly sweet.

I've been using:-

400g sloes
150g sugar
500ml gin

in a litre container.

Use caster sugar, dissolves better IMO.

We keep in jar for 12 months, then bottle it & leave for at least 4 years.
Tastes really smooth at that age.

Enjoy

Not had any probs with granulated dissolving, all gone within a few hours.

See I thought Sloes weren't to be picked until after the first frost, but I noticed yesterday that a bush I had been keeping an eye on had been stripped bare, luckily I know where there are loads that are in the middle of nowhere, you won't get your local Dog walker hanging his pooped bag off this bush no way.

Bump

Gordons Gin reduced at Asda currently, £10 for 1 litre (down from £15).

not keen on gin is vodka ok ?

Sloe gin ends up tasting nothing like gin BTW.

Sloe vodka works also though I believe.