Winter Warmer – Sloe Gin Recipe

I have recently discovered that certain alcoholic tipples are actually more efficient at keeping me warm than our costly central heating. A small can of vodka and cola (currently reduced to just £1.24 at my local supermarket), when dispensed into a suitable glass (because ladies don’t drink from cans, snort) keeps me rosy and glowing for at least two or three hours. Really. I kid you not. Granted, when I discovered this, I was wearing a jumper and a scarf, but still pretty impressive nonetheless.

So in light of this recent discovery, and given that temperatures have plummeted over these past few nights, I thought that it was about time that I posted my winter warmer recipe for sloe gin. I hadn’t tried sloe gin until last year. It was a drink name that I’d heard bandied about as a somewhat cliché homebrewing anecdote, and I remember reading a story in a magazine where a novice barmaid thought that “slow gin” was gin that you poured slowly into the glass. Ho ho.

But it all changed when I visited a late autumn English Heritage event at my local stately home, Wrest Park. English Heritage had set up a few stalls in the shelter of the orangery, with ‘rustic’ seasonal jams, chutneys and other preserves, as well as a selection of British wines and alcoholic beverages. They were offering small samples of each, and I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to take part in some taste testing. I actually went for the damson gin first, as we have a damson tree here and I had already begun formulating plans before the gin had hit my stomach.

But if I’m honest, I wasn’t too enamoured with the damson gin. The sloe gin had a slightly more pinkish hue, looked suitably appealing, so I thought ‘why not?’. So I did. And it was good. Very good. Sweeter on first taste than I expected, and a few seconds later it just emanated this internal warmth that made it feel almost medicinal. Needless to say, I came away with a bottle and it has become one of my favourite winter warmers. I’m not a big drinker at all, which is probably why just one small glass is enough to ignite the internal heaters and keep me toasty for a few hours.

It then may come as no surprise that I have attempted to make my own sloe gin this year. Here at home, my blackthorn bushes (prunus spinosa, also known as sloe bushes because they bear the sloe fruits) have yet to crop, so Mum and I chose possibly the wettest and most miserable day to go sloe picking at our local country park. But we came away with a good crop, despite making sure to only pick around 10-20% of the fruit from one plant. That’s my general rule when it comes to foraging. Little bit for me, and the wildlife can have the rest.

And so, here is my sloe gin recipe. I can’t guarantee wonderful results, but it’s the product of much research on my part. I have quite a sweet tooth, so adjust the recipe at your discretion. Enjoy!

Sloe Gin Recipe

Recipe is to make a 1 litre bottle of sloe gin; adjust the ingredients depending on your needs!

Ingredients

• Half a litre of gin (needn’t be high quality; I go for Waitrose’s own brand, my other half prefers Gordon’s)
• Enough sloes to fill the other half litre
• 150g-250g caster sugar, depending on taste

Equipment

• Decanter with lid, or 1 litre bottle with airtight sealed lid (with enough room in neck to push through sloes)
• Fork or brand new hairbrush (yes, really!)

Method

1. Sterilise your bottles. Important!

2. This next bit is the most arduous. You’ll need to prick each individual sloe a few times with a sterilised needle, a cocktail stick or a cutlery fork. Be prepared for mess and lots of sloe juice. Once you’ve pricked through the skin of each sloe, plop it in the gin bottle. Do this until you’ve filled half the litre bottle. If like me, you’re a bit impatient, you could buy a new hairbrush, sterilise it, and then whack the sloes with the hairbrush ‘teeth’. Very likely to cause mess, but is certainly a fun alternative.

3. Add sugar. 150g for sweetness, 250g+ for teeth rottingly sweet (but tasty) beverage.

4.  Fill the rest of the bottle with your gin.

5. Seal the bottle and then give a good shake. Store in a cool, dry place. You’ll need to shake your fermenting sloe gin about once a day for the first week of fermentation. Then it’s just once a week for the remaining 8-10 weeks.

6. After 8-12 weeks, open, decant and enjoy the rosy glow. And remember, if you prefer to leave your sloes in the bottle, you’ve got around 6 months to finish your bottle of homebrewed sloe gin! If you opted for gin sans sloes, you’ve got considerably longer.

Enjoy. I certainly will! And am also looking forward to the prospect of my own homegrown sloes next year, too.