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scarletwitch wrote:The recipe we use (out of a very old book) advises removing the sloes after around six months as they will ultimatley impair the flavour.

Never had to do that yet though as it is so yummy the gin has never lasted that long!

I did, at least, remove the sloes from my ten year old bottle about nine and a half years ago. I think they'd be pretty revolting now.

A quick tip - don't put the sloes on an open compost heap unless you want drunk birds!

Thomzo wrote:

scarletwitch wrote:The recipe we use (out of a very old book) advises removing the sloes after around six months as they will ultimatley impair the flavour.

Never had to do that yet though as it is so yummy the gin has never lasted that long!

I did, at least, remove the sloes from my ten year old bottle about nine and a half years ago. I think they'd be pretty revolting now.

A quick tip - don't put the sloes on an open compost heap unless you want drunk birds!

No thats a waste... dip them on dark chocolate they make fantastic sweets...

scarletwitch wrote:The recipe we use (out of a very old book) advises removing the sloes after around six months as they will ultimatley impair the flavour.

Never had to do that yet though as it is so yummy the gin has never lasted that long!

Bottled up a gallon of sloe gin that recently that had been sitting with the sloes in since last december (pretty much 6 months) Smells fantastic but its a trifle sharp for my taste buds now compared to the stuff I bottled after 3 months.
Of course the real ale drinkers I share the stuff with love it (I think all that bitter has degraded their taste buds )

When I used to make sloe gin I was always annoyed about having to throw out all those lovely gin-infuded sloes! So I started cutting them up (to throw away the stones) and putting them into melted dark chocolate to gave away as Christmas presents - if I could resist eating them! Yum, liqueur chocolates!

Ann

I've always found the sloes too astringent (is that the right word) to eat once they've been soaked but perhaps chopping them up and coating in chocolate would mask that a bit.

Cheers
Zoe

I use a lot of sugar in mine, but like a few other posters my sloe gin never lasts long enough to remove the sloes!!

all the sloes I can find round here look just about ready and I don't want to wait until after the first frost as I'm sure they'll go walkabout (it seems someone other than me round here knows what they're looking for)... does freezing them really work to do the same thing as the frost does? whatever that may be...

We don't throw the sloes away after draining off the gin, we pour in a reasonable red plonk and leave it for 3 months, after which you can drain them again and use them in apple pies after destoning them, at which point they run of any futher use