Do we have any Sloe Gin fans here?

hyperfish

Several times actually. It was passed through muslin cloth when it went into the original bottle. Then again through kitchen paper into this Kilner.

IronGiant

Thanks.  Just asked Number one Son if he can harvest our home grown sloes tomorrow

nheather

Impressed so far.  My batch is looking the right colour after just one day.

Do you put almond in with the sloes

Cheers,

Nigel

hyperfish

Never tried almond. I'm happy with just the sloes.

hyperfish

Thanks for the prompt. Just picked a kilo to freeze. Took about 30 minutes. The lower limbs had been picked clean and what was left were small and soft, the rest were shrivelled. One more week would be too late.

Lots of mud.
                                                                                 

If only I was 4ft taller....
                                                                               

Fruits of my labour.
                                                                       

AMc

FWIW I make raspberry vodka each year with the little crop from our self seeded plants.
Take a bottle of nice vodka, pour yourself a stiff drink to make a little room in the bottle.
Add washed raspberries through the neck until the bottle is full or you run out of raspberries.  A small handful is enough.  
Put the top back on and turn it upside down once in a while when you remember.
After a few days you'll have pink vodka that tastes a bit of raspberry, the longer you leave it the better it gets.
I use it in Raspberry Vodka Martinis with a suitable liqueur in place of vermouth.  If you were fussy you could decant and filter it, I don't.
The remaining fruit is delicious if seriously alcoholic.

I do the same with blackberries.  I don't bother sweetening either.

IronGiant

450g, out of our own garden, how lucky is that:                                                                       

hyperfish

Nice crop. Those look fresher than mine. I like to see that powerdery coating on the berries but had no idea what it was until I just Googled. Consensus is that it's natural yeast.

IronGiant

I believe it is and is why, traditionally, wine makers didn't add yeast to their grapes as they came "packaged" with a strain that had developed to match the grapes.

hyperfish

Progress report.
Both are 1 litre.
The tall one had 750g of sloes and steeping for 30 days
The other 500g and 19 days.