'Tis the season

[bugbear]

To make sloe gin, which requires gin. Quite a lot of gin, so price is an issue.

In my home town, today:

Tesco:

1L - 14.50
1.5L - 21.00

Morrisons:

1L - 14.49

Co-op:

70Cl - 11.15
1L - 17.29

So; Tesco cheapest at 14.00 per L, on a 1.5L bottle

Anyone got prices for Sainsbury, Waitrose, Asda, Aldi, Lidl?

BugBear

 

[marcros]

out of interest, for the purposes of sloe gin, is it worth buying "decent" gin for the process, or just cheap as possible?

 

[Phil Pascoe]

You can chuck a few extra juniper berries in cheap stuff. You can use the resultant sludge mixed with mincemeat in pies. (Minus stones!)

 

[Racers]

I do Blackberry Gin at this time of year using the cheapest Sainsbury Gin, I can't be bothered to shop around.

Pete

BB, do you freeze your slows first to help them break down?

 

[marcros]

i always freeze mine- easier than pricking the things.

Blackberry brandy is a favourite too.

 

[bugbear]

I do Blackberry Gin at this time of year using the cheapest Sainsbury Gin, I can't be bothered to shop around.

Pete

BB, do you freeze your slows first to help them break down?

Turns them into sludge IMHO, which then requires filtering out, which can be tricky.

I do this... (cue Jacob explosion)

http://www.sloe.biz/pip/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=638

BugBear

 

[mseries]

Anyone got prices for Sainsbury, Waitrose, Asda, Aldi, Lidl?

BugBear

mysupermarket.com

 

[bugbear]

Anyone got prices for Sainsbury, Waitrose, Asda, Aldi, Lidl?

BugBear

mysupermarket.com

I find they're not that accurate.

BugBear

 

[bugbear]

out of interest, for the purposes of sloe gin, is it worth buying "decent" gin for the process, or just cheap as possible?

You do not want bad/crude flavours coming from the gin, so the cheapest are to be avoided.

But conversely, the flavours of sugar and sloe are fairly powerful, so an expensive subtle gin would be wasted.

My decision to go with "normal" supermarket gin; not "premium", and not "saver/value"

BugBear

 

[Jacob]

No need to prick them it makes no difference.
I'm told it's a bit early for picking them yer sposed to leave them until after a frost or two.
Have frozen first them in the past to avoid having to do them in one go. Again - no discernible difference.
Usually do half bot gin filled to top with sloes. Or black currants for Cassis. Or probably anything fruity is worth a go. Plus one or two tablespoons sugar. On the other hand a gin& tonic is nice!
If you leave it in the sun to bleach you get Ratafia, then ratarsed.

 

[bellringer]

aldi is cheap for gin

 

[AndyT]

I never knew you needed to prick the sloes, but the stuff I made a few years ago was lovely.
I strained the gin off the sloes after a year or so, chopped them up and stirred them into some melted chocolate to make some rather tasty liqueur chocs. It could be time to have another go!

 

[Cheshirechappie]

I do Blackberry Gin at this time of year using the cheapest Sainsbury Gin, I can't be bothered to shop around.

Pete

BB, do you freeze your slows first to help them break down?

+1 for blackberry gin. Three months steeping, then strain and bottle the liquor. Allow to mature for as long as you can bear to wait (early tests suggest seriously good). The remaining blackberry mush can be frozen and used in the summer to top ice cream, but ours seemed a bit dry. Nice flavour though, and not as alcoholic as I thought they would be.

You can do the same with damsons. Got a batch on the go, but as I haven't done damson gin before, can't comment on the result. Yet. The steeped damsons make a seriously wicked damson crumble, I'm told. Stoned? You will be...

Ditto plum brandy.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Tesco gin is excellent and inexpensive. Not their Everyday stuff, which is vile, but their Classic brand. It's not Bombay Sapphire but it is streets ahead of Gordon's. Yuk.
Morrison's is also good but more expensive.

I had a neighbour who made delicious SG and Blackberry Whisky. I tried to make the latter and it was horrible. I obviously did something wrong. I'd like to try the SL again, but I'm ashamed to say I wouldn't know a sloe if I fell over one. I live fairly countrifically up here at the mo, so I suppose I should be able to find some if I try hard enough.

S

 

[Harbo]

Masses of Sloes within a few hundred yards of my house - I leave it to my son-in-law who lives nearby to do the honours though.

Blackthorn - bushy shrub with thorns - black fruit about 1/2"

Rod

 

[SteveF]

damson or sloe vodka works for me

 

[bugbear]

I never knew you needed to prick the sloes, but the stuff I made a few years ago was lovely.

All the traditional, time-tested recipes prick the sloes, and given the cost of the seven and a half litres of gin involved (I made 3 demijohns) I wasn't going to risk cocking it up. But I didn't fancy hand-pricking the number of sloes involved, hence the gadget.

Further, on the paranoia front, I used the lowest amount of sugar of any of the recipes I found - it's easy to add more sugar on first tasting. I added some, since osmotic pressure is likely to be a factor in the slow juice extraction.

But I think it's difficult to make bad sloe gin; the scale seems to run from "yummy" to "utterly delicious".

BugBear

 

[graduate_owner]

We normally get a good crop of sloes, but they are pretty thin on the ground (thin in the bush?) this year.
However, unlike the previous forum members, I make sloe wine. You don't have to buy gin, just sugar and a few bits and pieces such as wine yeast and nutrients (and the kit of course). There are plenty of on line recipes, and once you have bought the kit you keep using it year after year. You need 2 - 3 lbs of sloes per gallon, and I usually make 5 gallons at a time. I freeze the sloes before starting because apparently it helps the skins to split.
And the result after about 3 months - delicious (as long as you do it properly). Cost? Somewhere around £1 per gallon.

K