Rex's Sloe Gin Recipe

It's the time of year when I like to start my Sloe Gin! I thought today I'd share my recipe for you, in the hope that you'd like to make some too 🙂

Well, actually, I was hoping to post a Full API Node setup guide, but my draft is on a poorly HD for which I'm awaiting a replacement.... so booze is the theme instead! And I do need to get this sloe gin batch started, so let's crack on.

Sloes are the fruit of the Blackthorn bush. Blackthorn wood is prized as well as the fruit; it's traditionally used for top quality walking sticks.

Finding some Blackthorn bushes

It's worth exploring in Springtime to identify the Blackthorn bushes when they're in bloom, because Blackthorn often hides in amongst other hedge plants, or can be found along the sunniest edge of a forest.

It's easy to spot in Spring even from a long distance, because its little white flowers are so bright:

Image cred

I have a secret sloe patch I've been using for a while now, but I'm sure you can find your own spot. Blackthorn grows across Europe and the western part of Asia.

Once you've found some Blackthorn, revisit them in Autumn and look for the fruit.

Even if you don't already know where there's a sloe patch, you may still come across some fruiting bushes while out walking at this time of year.

Harvesting the sloes

Here's my secret sloe patch, all ready to harvest:

You can bet I've removed the location data from that pic 😄

Although they look like blueberries, you really don't want to try eating them at this stage! They're extremely dry and astringent.

I always wait for the first decent frost, which was a little late this year - meaning the gin won't quite be ready in time for Christmas, as it really needs 3 months to mature. Waiting for frost ensures that the sloes have grown as large as they will, and helps to impart a smoother flavour. You don't need the sloes to be frozen when you actually pick them.

When picking the sloes, take great care not to snap off twigs. It's important to ensure we don't damage the plant, so that we'll get another good crop next year. For this reason, you can't really pull off a handful of sloes at once; they need to be individually picked.

If you go too fast, your hands will end up scratched by the very sharp thorns on the stems, so take your time and enjoy being outside, picking sloes on a lovely Autumn day.

Preparing the sloes

When you get home, remove any leaves and bits of twigs from the sloes. I do this by grabbing a handful of sloes from my collecting container, picking out bad sloes and any stuff that isn't sloes, and then dropping that handful in a clean container. Before long, I have a small pile of rubbish and a large pile of sloes!

Most recipes will tell you should remove the tiny pieces of stalk that are often attached to each sloe, but you really don't need to do that.

Make sure that any spiders or other wee beasties that have accompanied you home are set free outside.

Next, give the sloes a good rinse in a sieve or collander to wash them.

There's a lot of lore about exactly what should happen next. Some traditions would have you individually prick every sloe with a thorn from the bush they were picked from! Other people will tell you to mash them with a fork. In my experience, none of that is necessary.

What is definitely required, however, is to freeze the sloes. This should be for a minimum of 24 hours, but you can leave the sloes in the freezer indefinitely and start a batch of sloe gin any time.

Once frozen, the sloes have a beautiful and almost ethereal colour, and rattle together like glass marbles!

Making the gin

Now that we have our precious sloes harvested and processed, we'll need the following to make the gin:

• Gin! This should be a simple gin -- nothing fancy, and no infusions. We need a nice neutral flavour base to start from. Anything sold as "London Gin" will do. Generally I do the rounds of the local supermarkets and see which has the cheapest own-brand London Gin.

• Some wide-mouthed, sealable glass containers. I use Kilner-type jars, but jam jars or other screw-top jars will work fine too!

• Sugar. While technically any sugar will do, golden caster sugar is ideal. We'll need approx 50% of the weight of our sloes in sugar.

That's all we need, and the method is simple too.

1. Wash and dry the glass jars (there's no need to sterilise them) and take the sloes out of the freezer. There's no need to defrost them before continuing!

2. For each jar, fill it up 1/3 with sloes. Then, measure the weight of sloes it took to fill 1/3 of the jar.

3. For each jar, you need half as much sugar as sloes, by weight. So if it took 300g of sloes to 1/3 fill your jar, add 150g of sugar.

4. Top up with gin and seal the jar. Make sure it's well sealed!

5. Gently invert the jar 10 times, then place somewhere in a cool dark place.

6. For the first 2 weeks, give each jar a few inversions/shakes every day. After that, you can check on them every week and give them a few inversions.

I told you it was simple -- the hardest part will be the waiting for it to be ready! It'll take 3 months to reach perfection.

3 litres of sloe gin! Although it doesn't yet look very appetising, I'll do an update to show you how it develops a beautiful pink colour within the first couple of weeks.

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