Bullace gin on the go

[Crowstalker]

One will be cardamom and cumin seed, and one will be cinnamon, star anise and a touch of clove.

Love the sound of that last one very Christmassay, do you have any rough measurements of how much you use or just wing it like me??

 

[TringSaint]

Love the sound of that last one very Christmassay, do you have any rough measurements of how much you use or just wing it like me??

800g of sloes, 500g of sugar and 1 litre of gin plus spices. I add more gin once it’s done in order to get the sweetness right.

 

[TringSaint]

Sloe fins are looking good.
The smaller jar is slow with Tonka bean, so really keen to see how that one tastes - hopefully a nice hit of nutty vanilla!

 

[dgb]

Those of you that sugar your sloes in the cupboard, are you excluding oxygen during the process and if so, how? Just shutting the empty jar on them? I’ve a couple of kg in the freezer ready to go and would like to try that method.

 

[Cyres]

Picked more Bullace on Wednesday. Lovely big fruit.
Also got 2x 1 litre of gin for £18 in UK duty free on the Shuttle last weekend.
D

 

[ChrisWill184]

Ok this is getting a bit 4 Yorkshiremen (you were lucky we.....) but anyhoo

we go one further

Our family secret recipe involves not only

macerating the sloes in the sugar in a dark place

..but also

Cracking as many of the stones as you can be bothered beforehand


Plumbers grips makes this easier as you can crack them easy
(Although a couple of drops of almond essence has been known to work the same with less mess)

That must be what it was!

I remember buying sloe gin from Lidl or Aldi maybe 5 / 6 years ago and that is what it tasted like. The nutty almond flavour was right through it and although I'm sure many like it, I did not.

Remember my pal was horribly sick one night over a hotel balcony while we were playing beer pong with it..................

This is the first year that I haven't made any for years.

 

[Freeforester]

Had a bumper crop of blackcurrants this year, the vodka’s coming along nicely.
Even the geans were great, good enough for last Ff to do a modicum of brandy.




Btw I personally found more than forty years ago that gaelic coffee or a ‘birse’ cup of tea made with crap whisky will never be like coffee/tea made with the proper stuff, and nor am I a fan of cheap gin nor vodka, embellished with fruit or no. Taste the difference, as they say.

 

[3red dogs]

Be careful with sloe stones. Don’t crack them , as with most fruit pips and stones , -plums, cherries , applies, pears etc, they contain a cyanide compound.

 

[shakey jake]

Be careful with sloe stones. Don’t crack them , as with most fruit pips and stones , -plums, cherries , applies, pears etc, they contain a cyanide compound.

thats the almond flavour, id think you would need a lot of stones to do any damage

 

[3red dogs]

Agreed, but always good to be wise.
Worries me when th dogs clean them up .

 

[shakey jake]

im going to post this here and in the cider thread.
bottled my sloe and damson gins at the weekend.
once bottled i added a pretty crap home made cider to the left over fruit in the demi john.
really suprised like a turbo fruit cider, if you have both or have sloe gin and cheap cider its not a bad drink, prob not too many pints in one go though

 

[shakey jake]

2Lbs sloes ,1lb sugar then about 3.5 litres gin from Aldi fills the demi john

Just added the gin, only 2L seems very pale in colour, tastes more spirity than fruity. Is that what you would expect ?

 

[tozzybum]

No tbh after 4/weeks of the sloes and sugar " fermentation " its normally dark purple then add the gin.
Shake it madly for 7 days and leave to stand for long time as possible.
The shaking ensures the sugar fully dissolved.
Can depend on the sloes as well ,the drought here affected the quality on my normal bushes .
Smaller this year but seem ok.