How to Make an Easy Tasty Sloe Gin Recipe.  Making Sloe gin is easy to do and has great results.

I first discovered sloe gin a few Christmases ago when my sister made me some.  It tasted so great that I decided to make my own recipe.

This proved problematic as the supermarkets and local markets did not sell them.  Very frustrating.  so where can you get them from?

Where to Buy Sloe Berries

Using dried fruit

You can buy them in various places on-line.  You can use dried fruit and rehydrated it for your gin making.

Finding Fruit Where to Get Slow Berries

Many people do pick them from the wild.  You can do this as long as you are confident in what you are looking for and are allowed to pick where you are.  Remember to leave some berries for nature.

Grow Your Own

You can, of course, get the bushes and grow your own if you are having difficulty in finding them or don’t want to used dried fruits.

Why Don’t the Shops Sell Them?

They are extremely acidic and tart so not very nice to eat most of the time.  The plant they come from is the blackthorn bush.  This is a prunus genus and this range like many others contain hydrogen cyanide which is a toxin.

It is not a big deal as many nuts and fruits etc do have small amounts of this in them.

The are however great for jams and gin .

 How to Make Your Own home Made Sloe Gin Recipe

Ingredients:

• sloes 450g – For 1 KG (2.20lb) of Berries
  For dried sloe berries.
  Youngs Wine Additives Dried Sloes

• 1 LTR of good quality gin – (cheap gin doesn’t turn out as good results) easy enough to get locally but can be bought on-line if you prefer to get it all together.
• 225g caster sugar if adding when you put the berries into the jar or make a syrup if adding at the end. –  again sugar is easy to buy in your local supermarket

Equipment Needed

• Large Jar – sterilised before use
• Glass Gin Bottles size of choice – again sterilise before use
• Jelly bag/muslin
• Funnel
• Small pan at the end

A Beautiful Traditional Slow Gin Making Kit

This beautifully traditional Kilner kit has everything you need to start your gin making.  it is beautiful Kilner style.   The set includes a 2-litre jar, four 500ml smaller bottles ready for your sloe gin, a funnel and maslin.

Alternatively, you could get a jar separately and leave getting the bottles until you are ready to strain your Gin into them.

Kilner Sloe Gin Set (8-Piece) 

Method For Making Your Sloe Gin – I just Love this Bit

1.  You take your slows already washed, stalks removed and checked or rehydrated (24 hours) if using dried ones. If you have fresh you might want to pop them in the freezer to make their skins split as this makes them sweeter.

2. You then pop them and the gin into the Jar.  Close the jar and seal.  Making sure the kid is firm you can then shake the jar.

If you are using dried sloes they may be sweeter than fresh ones so it is best to leave any sweetening until you have finished so you know how much sugar you need to add to get just the right taste for you. In fact, there are those that say this is the best method anyway.

3. Now to the Hard Part!!!

You have to wait – Nooo!  Yes, I am afraid so.  Some say six months and others say three months.  I’ll take the three thank very much.  (and do an extra one ready in the six months.

Actually the longer you leave it the better, so if you can leave it a year that would be good.

Note:  Some say to shake the jar weekly. This distributes the colour about, but you can get away with not doing this if you down#t want to.

4.  Now you have waited (and waited) your Gin is nearly ready, check the taste and add your  syrup sugar.  You can heat some syrup and water 50/50 ratio, together in a pan and let it cool down then add to your gin (if you didn’t do it at the start).  Once done you can then strain your liquid into their individual (sterilised bottles ready to go to family and friends for gifts or to keep ready for you to drink.

Another Recipe to Try

Here is a simple sloe gin recipe explanation. I found on YouTube.  He makes his gin slightly differently than the recipe I used here.  I like this video it feels very earthy, perhaps it is the setting.  Here the sugar goes in first.

I love that he uses old bottles, although I have opted for jars for ease.  Also, I found out recently that you can actually use different alcohol for these so sloe vodka etc.  I haven’t tried it yet but apparently whatever is available.