Sloe Gin

The trend of home brewing beer has become very popular and now includes making homemade liqueurs and liqueurs. These homemade delights are great gifts; add wonderful flavours to your cooking, and work well as dessert or after-dinner drinks.

One of the new favourites of home brewers and liqueur makers is slow gin. Sloe gin is a popular cold weather liqueur, and is seen on many holiday tables. Many a cook enjoys sipping a sloe gin fizz as they prepare their holiday meals.

The name “gin” does not describe this delicious liqueur, as it resembles gin in no recognizable way. Instead, sloe gin has a fruit flavour that enhances all the senses. It is wonderful alone and also added to food for extra flavour. Sauces, such as cranberry sauce, especially benefit from sloe gin.

“Sloes” are normally harvested in the fall, making the fall months the perfect time to make your own sloe gin. Begin with about 400 to 500 grams of sloes that have been cleaned and punctured with a sterilized pin. Other ingredients needed are 700 millilitres of gin, 250 grams of sugar, and a few chopped almonds for flavour.

Once you have assembled all of your ingredients, and cleaned your sloes, everything can be mixed together in a glass bottle with an airtight lid. The mixture must be “turned” every day by shaking the bottle gently. Continue the process every day until the sugar has dissolved. Let the mixture sit for one more month and then strain it using a coffee filter. This will remove the fermented sloes, the almonds, and any other particles leaving you with a wonderful homemade liqueur.