Rose hip gin/brandy

[Hotandbothereds]

I was hoping to make sloe gin, but I can’t find any sloes near me and spotted tonnes of rose hips - Google tells me I can make rose hip gin/brandy instead.

Anyone tried this? What’s it like? I don’t want to just ruin a load of booze if it’s not nice! 😆

Don’t do it… My grandma advised me against it but I didn’t heed her warning.

Rosehips have tiny tiny hairs in them. DGrandma told me that when she was young they used to make itching powder out of rosehips… and the gin was indeed kind of itchy.

Also the taste was very non-descript, just sweet from the sugar.

Can you find damsons? There have been loads growing wild here and I've made damson gin. Also blackberry whisky is nice.

Blackberry gin is very nice though

Ahh, I did wonder - thank you!

I’m not keen on overly sweet drinks so I think this is a no then.

I’ve not spotted damsons but I’ll take a look, I could just buy some fruit but just got it in my head it’d be nice to pick something I could use.

I adore rosehips! My mum used to make the best rosehip and apple jelly, I'd bloody love some now! I have no idea if rosehip gin would work, they have a pretty tough skin abs are not soft at all like eg plums, so not sure the flavour would leach out into the gin? I'm also not sure how the itchy fibres would get out of the hips into the gin though, surely you'd put them in whole like making eg cherry gin and this wouldn't be an issue? Happy to be corrected though! FYI I made an outstanding cherry gin last summer... so good.

Elderberries are abundant now too. Try them.

How about crab apples?

I made crab apple jelly for the first time last week. It's bloody delicious.

I’ve got some Rosehip vodka steeping. Trying it for the first time. Will strain through muslin to catch any hairy seeds.