Making flavoured gin

[ThinksTwice]

Hi,

I'm interested in making some flavoured gin this year. Does anyone have any ideas or lovely recipes please?

I like the idea of sloe gin but it's too early isn't it to pick sloe berries?

I also love grapefruit!

There's a way of making it in your dishwasher.

Hmm, I made rhubarb gin in the way most of you are describing and you couldn't really taste the rhubarb even though I left it for a good few months.
Cloud, was your rhubarb fresh? Or maybe you left it too long? You need nice pink rhubarb and I usually leave mine 3 weeks. I've always found the rhubarb taste to be very present.

@userxx  our dishwasher is new so might make a reasonable drink but the old one... bleuugh...

Has anyone made anything like passion fruit gin? I'm eyeing up the fruit bowl and thinking about experimenting...

@VelociraptorRex I haven't made it but I dream of it! Aldi have just released a passionfruit gin type thing, I'm going to try that and then attempt making it myself!

Hmm, I made rhubarb gin in the way most of you are describing and you couldn't really taste the rhubarb even though I left it for a good few months

Months?! That's ridiculous. What on earth were you expecting it to taste like? Honestly - 3-4 days is plenty.

Any particular gin you use, eg Gordon's or similar, or will any cheap paint stripper do?

Cranberry and orange gin. V Christmassy, if you are looking for gifts. Goes down way too well.

@GrainneWall DH uses Sainsbury's London Dry gin - not the basics one, but their 'ordinary' gin. And it works just fine!

Don't make elderflower gin, it's horrible!
I've wasted a whole bottle of gin. I thought it would be lovely but it just tastes of twigs.

perhaps I left my rhubarb too long. I followed a recipe from pinterest though which said to leave it 3 months. Rhubarb was fresh from the garden.

Hey ho, I will try again with a different recipe.

Cloud the BBC good food one is great of you need a recipe but it's basically gin, rhubarb and sugar. And don't leave it too long. And use the pinkest rhubarb. I strain mine then stick it in the cupboard til i want it.

Black currant gin is lovely. As is black currant Bacardi...

I’m going to try black currant and lemon verbena this year.

Blackberry gin, take an old squash bottle with you out on a walk, fill with the berries then top up with sugar and gin when you get home.

I love the idea of blackberry gin and also raspberry! I'll look out for the sloes. Is August for too early?

Probably, it has been warm though so they might be starting to get ripe, better to wait another month probably. You might have more luck with damsons - like sloes but much bigger!

Sloes I found today, ridiculously early

Blackberry gin, take an old squash bottle with you out on a walk, fill with the berries then top up with sugar and gin when you get home.

I'd wash the berries once I got them home, before doing anything else. Even though the alcohol would presumably do a reasonable job of killing/disinfecting anything harmful.

Raspberry gin:gin, raspberries, sugar, a few cloves and cinnamon stick. Shake daily for 1-2 weeks then occasionally. Could look up the proper recipe if anybody’s interested.

Flavoured alcohol takes around 3-4months to mature( so I was told). I was also told to strain the alcohol after a few weeks as the fruit goes mushy after a while.

Rhubarb gin- best use early rhubarb known as forced- this is the coloured rhubarb that gives this distinctive pink colour

Now tempted to make orange, cinnamon and vanilla

Any other interesting combinations?