Sloe gin - made some but not sure I did it right!

[SpeckledHen]

Picked some things that look like sloes but may be damsons since tey taste nice and sloes are suppposed to taste horrible. Bought 3 sloe gin bottles from Lakeland and followed recipe which basically says mix sloes with sugar, bung in bottle and mix with gine and leave for x months shaking every now and then. The thing is, the sloes were too big to fit in the neck of the bottle. Is the bottle only for decorative purposes once process complete? Surely not since it has an airtight special cap. Or is it that what I had were not sleos? Anyone with any experience in this I would be grateful to know how you go about it!!!!

Cut them in half

I normally just use normal gin bottles and drink some first! A third sloes, a third sugar and top it up with gin. Prick the sloes first or freeze them then bung it all in the bottle and keep shaking.

God I love sloe gin. I've never made it but if you need someone to test it for you...just to make sure it's alright you understand

And I'm sure damson gin is also lovely

you're meant to put the gin/sloe/sugar mix in a big jar and shake every now and then over 3 months. Then you strain the sloes out and bottle the resulting sloe gin in your fancy airtight Lakeland jars. I think if you leave the sloes themselves in for toooooooooooo long it might make the gin bitter. You can always do this and put back in same bottles minus the sloes.......

More importantly, does it taste nice?!

Just take an empty gin bottle and fill it with pricked sloes and a cup of sugar. Then pour over as much gin as it can hold. Drink after Christmas.

The fun is in making it yourself.

I can highly recommend this website for all queries sloe related.