Question about making flavoured spirits at home

[ThreeRingCircus]

I've got a bottle of gin, about a quarter of it has been drunk but I'm not a huge fan of it so it's just been sat in the cupboard. There's loads of sloes round us at the moment so I'm thinking of using it to make sloe gin. Can I just prick the sloes and put them straight into the gin bottle with some sugar syrup rather than emptying everything out and sterilising the bottle if it's only had neat gin in there?

I've made other flavoured spirits at home and always sterilised an empty bottle to fill but wondering if this is a quick cheat.

That should be fine, strong alcohol does a pretty good job of sterilising on its own and still more so in combination with sugar! Though I just add sugar rather than sugar syrup. Freezing the sloes before putting into the alcohol is a quick and easy way of achieving the same effect as pricking them btw.

Can't see why that wouldn't be fine. Definitely better and easier to freeze the sloes rather than prick them- you get more flavour out that way.

I also tend to put just the sugar and the fruit in together for a day or so and then add the gin/vodka later - again, I think you get a bit more flavour this way. Obviously not suitable for you this time, but maybe something to try if you make some another time.

My mother's recipe was a cup of gin, a cup of sloes and a cup of sugar, leave until Christmas, shake or stir regularly, strain into a clean bottle to finish.

I like the idea of freezing the sloes, I assume that bursts the skin - pricking each one is pretty tedious.

If you have 3/4 of a bottle (i.e. 1/4 empty), that may not fit.

I always freeze my sloes, flavour is much better that way.
A stick of cinnamon in the mix makes it taste amazing.

Thank you all! I'll definitely freeze the sloes then, that sounds much easier and a cinnamon stick in there sounds like a great idea.

The sloes are removed at the end and take up quite a bit of space. I used to make in a separate jar, then decant in to bottles after. It might be fiddly to get them out otherwise, especially of they expand soaking up alcohol.

As per PP the fruit takes up space, i bought a kilner jar, chuck plums in (i have a plum tree) sugar, gin and leave for 3 months.
I halved the plums and remove the stones before making.
When ready it gets sieved then passed throughout muslin a couple of times to ensure no residue,