sloe gin

Blackberry vodka is very good.

Blackberry brandy is excellent too. And you can make jam from the berries after they're sozzled.

I do not have any sloes here in France this year but it has been a bad year all round for the fruit - no cherries, plums, pears etc earlier. I do still have a supply of sloe gin I made last year and some sloe brandy not yet bottled.

Help please - sloe identification!
Some help for a novice appreciated

I headed to Hurst Road, Surrey in early October on the tip from forum and picked what I thought were sloes - spent hours researching and following recipes etc.... and just tested the progress today and it's foul! Nothing like other branded sloe gin. Although I realise it's a little early to taste test i thought it might be starting to come along

So i'm not sure what I picked!

Description of berries:
- dark colour, not quite purple or black but somewhere in between
- much smaller than i expected being about size of half a fingernail but i put this down to a poor season this year from what i'd read
- no stones or pips as far as i can tell
- some resistance when pricking with a pin

Description of bush:
- about the right height for a sloe bush (maybe 10ft tall, 6ft wide) and berries were in clumps of about 4-12, but no real thorns as such

Description of gin (about 6-7 weeks in):
- followed all the recipes... ~500ml gin, 200g sugar, 400 odd berries per 1 litre jug, kept in dark cupboard 8 weeks with regular turning in the first week and about once per week since
- very dark colour, very much like ribena
- VERY bitter, also quite a lasting taste back of mouth

Any ideas what it could be?? Or do you think there's a chance it could still come to fruition if left for another couple of months?

Thanks!!

Got loads of sloes here in the Jura mountains. Got one of those large glass jars from an old fashioned sweet shop on the brew

toptrader I'm fairly sure that sloes have a stone.

Sloes have a stone which contributes to the flavour. It should not taste bitter and the bush has thorns. Be very careful. Not sure you should be drinking this.

Mmm could be poisonous. Not elder probably - elder berries grow in clumps and are squishy, like small grapes.
I can definitely conclude that this was a mistake, and you should put it down to experience and pour it down the sink. Pity about the gin.
Bitter tastes in plants can often be associated with poisonous compounds.
Sloes look like miniature plums. They are extremely sour, like crab apples, so sour they dry up your mouth, but not bitter.
Best picked once they go a bit soft. They certainly do have a stone. And a bluish blush on the black skin. They are a wild cousin of the domestic plum. Blackthorn blossom in March is a clue where you will find sloes in the autumn. But if the weather is too bad they wont get pollinated which is what happened to many bushes this year.

Sloes are the fruit of the blackthorn so if there were no thorns I'd say you've probably picked something else. Chuck if out.

If you google blackthorn you will probably be able to find a picture to compare. Even at this stage it should have started to be lovely - some recipes only say leave for 3 months although I think it gets better the longer it is left.
I agree with the others - tip it down the sink - certainly should not smell foul.

The sloe is a smaller relative of the damson and the blossom is similar too, though the blackthorn is usually a few weeks earlier than the damson. Both most certainly have stones.

The sloe is a smaller relative of the damson and the blossom is similar too, though the blackthorn is usually a few weeks earlier than the damson. Both most certainly have stones.

Toptrader, I am not sure what you have picked, but it is not a sloe. A sloe looks like a small plum and, as already mentioned has a stone. Size varies but the size you describe sounds far too small, the best comparison I can think of is, at their smallest the size of a medium/large sized wild blackberry and hard to nearly damson sized and the bigger they are the more beautiful the lustrous and almost fluorescent purple bloom on them is. As it is not clear what berries you have used I would not risk drinking it in case the fruit you have used is poisonous

This year our sloe trees in France, which has smaller sized sloes, were completely bare but our damson tree did very well and I have made damson gin instead. At home in Oxfordshire there is a beautiful sloe tree in a hedgerow where the sloes are so large I thought that they were small damsons when I first saw them but a taste soon made it clear they were't damsons and this year that too has been fruitless.

Bez and FlicketyB* Where I live in the Lot departement of France there have been plenty of sloes. And, yes, I do know a sloe when I see one as we had plenty where I lived in Wales too.

Sloe gin done properly is a lot of work but very tastily worth the effort.

Hard work? I certainly do not prick the sloes - just make sure they've had a couple of good frost on them to soften them. Put them in the freezer overnight, take them out and back in for another night if natural frost does not occur. Apart from that - not hard work at all. Put sugar, gin and sloes in large container and ... leave it to do its thing. Easy peasy, surely?

flowerfriend it is not you that seems to have misidentified , it is another poster.
yes freezing speeds things up a treat.
Picking the sloes is the best bit really.

Somebody on the expat Forum where I live asked where they could find sloes. So I replied that I would take anyone who wants some to my stash in the mountains - and many came and picking was indeed a lot of fun

I had never heard of freezing the blighters. What a brilliant idea. Thank you.

Saves stabbing self with darning needles I find.

This thread reminded me to take out my sloe gin and damson brandy from where they've been maturing and see how they're getting on. Yummy!! hic! hic!

Mine has only been brewing for 3 weeks - but lovely colour already. Will have a tipple with Greatnan when I get back from my Council meeting

Started my sloe gin in October. Last year's source of sloes completely devoid of fruit this year; found another hedgerow but they certainly weren't abundant. I tried the freezer method this year too. Saves a lot of work. This year's batch is a lovely dark colour - had a taste the other day; it was good but I think I might just leave it a bit longer than Christmas this year. My daughter's M-i-L gave her a bottle last year and it was the colour of rose' wine and tasted more of gin than anything - I think she must have diluted her primary batch to make it go round!

I haave used damsons before when sloes were unavailable and the results taste similar.

I will be bottling mine next week and we (or at least the adults) unwrap their presents while drinking a cranberry juice, sloe gin and champagne cocktail. The children get cranberry juice and lemondae.