Sloe Gin

[tozzybum]

in a big kilner jar i get 2lt of gin as well as the ingredients ,plenty of room n its more smiles at chrimbo

 

[limulus]

Place sloes in a large pan.
Add a bag of demerara sugar 1kg
Add 100ml of water.
Heat slowly then when the berries start to break down mash them.
Once the lot has broken down sieve off the stones and the skins (you can leave them if you like a just chuck it straight into the gin or whisky then strain after 3month's but I found the stones or skins added a bit of bitterness)
Add 1/3 sloe syrup to your spirit of choice then add demerara sugar to taste.
Quick, easy and you can easily control the flavour by adding more syrup/sugar as needed.
The syrup freezes well for those years the sloes don't fruit so well.

 

[Gazza0208]

At the Kilner stage add two or three whole almonds withe skin on, and dispose when you filter it out. Flavours change a little, but it's noticable. I use it on sloes, bulice and damsons.

 

[Orion]

I endorse what FGYT says. I always hold back some sugar, especially when using sweet fruit like damsons, as you never know how how sweet it's going to turn out. I just add more to taste when it's all finished.

Also my approach this year. Normally it's a case of lob it all in, including an equal amount of Tate & Lyle, and see how it turns out in 6 - 12 months time.

This year I've had a look at a few 'professional' recipes and was quite surprised at how many advise not adding any sugar, or preferably syrup, until the end of the process.

"Contrary to popular belief, there is very little point in adding sugar at the outset.
Saturating the spirit with sugar prevents it from extracting the natural fruit sugars - and other flavours - from the sloes. Sugar should really only be added at the start to produce sweet sloes for baking or chocolates rather than good sloe gin."

http://www.sipsmith.com/blog/articles/how-to-make-the-perfect-sloe-gin