I like Skol
A Minging Manc...
- Location
- Sunny Ashton-under-Lyne
Not wanting to hijack the @GrumpyGregry Nightcap Thread I thought I would start a new thread dedicated to the creation of this marvellous tipple 
Last years virgin sloe gin attempt was quite feeble due to not knowing what we were looking for and leaving it just a bit too late in the season (October'ish). Our foraging yielded a meagre handful of sloe berries which were duly fed into a bottle, along with sugar and a small amount of gin. I then duly rotated said bottle regularly and looked hopefully at the contents over the following weeks until boredom set in and I left it alone until Christmas came along. Inspection of the bottle revealed a liquid of the most wonderful hue and as it was now the season to be merry it was with some excitement and trepidation that I poured a small shot of the precious liquid into a short tumbler and took a sip.
WOW! Not wow like Steve McQueen drinking potato peel moonshine in The Great Escape, but WOW as in how can something homemade be this damn good at the 1st attempt. It was far superior to my previous experience of Sloe Gin, the commercially available Gordon's version which had caught my attention only a year or two earlier and it made the shop bought stuff seem a bit chemically in comparison. It wasn't to last though and just a short time later the party was over and it was back to the mass produced stuff
Anyway, this year I went out as a hardened veteran and headed towards what had looked to be the most promising location when I was taking my first stumbling foraging steps in 2016. Unfortunately I lost my bearings in the woods and took a wrong turn so never did find the bushes I had harvested from at the previous visit. What I did find was damn near a field full of the wonderful bushes, all laden with the fruit in various stages of ripeness. A veritable gold mine
The fruit has been picked, washed, soaked and frozen (this bursts the berries so they can easily release the flavours into the gin). Today I made a special trip to my local Aldi to pick up some gin. This wasn't without it's problems though as upon arriving at the till with 5 bottles of gin I was informed there was a three bottles per customer limit. No worries, I bought 3 then after putting them in the car returned for another 2. I left feeling like an alcoholic after being made to cheat the system to get my fix!
Tonight is bottling night and the clean bottles are now cooling after being heated to 120˚C, ready for the addition of sloe berries, sugar and gin
I'm going in, wish me luck.
Last years virgin sloe gin attempt was quite feeble due to not knowing what we were looking for and leaving it just a bit too late in the season (October'ish). Our foraging yielded a meagre handful of sloe berries which were duly fed into a bottle, along with sugar and a small amount of gin. I then duly rotated said bottle regularly and looked hopefully at the contents over the following weeks until boredom set in and I left it alone until Christmas came along. Inspection of the bottle revealed a liquid of the most wonderful hue and as it was now the season to be merry it was with some excitement and trepidation that I poured a small shot of the precious liquid into a short tumbler and took a sip.
WOW! Not wow like Steve McQueen drinking potato peel moonshine in The Great Escape, but WOW as in how can something homemade be this damn good at the 1st attempt. It was far superior to my previous experience of Sloe Gin, the commercially available Gordon's version which had caught my attention only a year or two earlier and it made the shop bought stuff seem a bit chemically in comparison. It wasn't to last though and just a short time later the party was over and it was back to the mass produced stuff
Anyway, this year I went out as a hardened veteran and headed towards what had looked to be the most promising location when I was taking my first stumbling foraging steps in 2016. Unfortunately I lost my bearings in the woods and took a wrong turn so never did find the bushes I had harvested from at the previous visit. What I did find was damn near a field full of the wonderful bushes, all laden with the fruit in various stages of ripeness. A veritable gold mine
The fruit has been picked, washed, soaked and frozen (this bursts the berries so they can easily release the flavours into the gin). Today I made a special trip to my local Aldi to pick up some gin. This wasn't without it's problems though as upon arriving at the till with 5 bottles of gin I was informed there was a three bottles per customer limit. No worries, I bought 3 then after putting them in the car returned for another 2. I left feeling like an alcoholic after being made to cheat the system to get my fix!
Tonight is bottling night and the clean bottles are now cooling after being heated to 120˚C, ready for the addition of sloe berries, sugar and gin
I'm going in, wish me luck.
