Home made sloe gin - bottled 13th Jan 2012
Today was the day. An appropriate day – if you know me well, you’ll know why
It was the day that the two kilo sweet jar was dragged from the back of the shed cupboard, and the husband sacrificed an un-holy hanky.
It was the day assigned to strain the ruby beauty… and then taste it!
The ruby beauty of course being this winter’s batch of home made sloe gin 
I have previously blogged my long association with gin, and last year’s first ever attempt at making sloe gin. This year, I used the same ingredients of sloes, sugar, almond essence and gin as last year. But I actually had to go out and buy gin (I wasn’t going to sacrifice my Tanquery, even for this), finishing up with a 1.5l bottle of my local supermarket’s best!
Sieving the sloe gin through the husband's hankie!
The fact that this year’s vintage has a far deeper flavour and colour is, I suspect down to two things:
- the much later date at which I picked the sloes (the end of September) when they were far riper, and a deeper colour;
- and the fact that I froze them – they were still frozen when I dropped them in the sweet jar and poured the other ingredients over them (a tip given me this spring by Fr Timothy of Alton Abbey)! I think the act of freezing breaks down the tough skin of the sloes, and so enables more of it’s juice to be released.
So, there you have it. Or at least you don’t; but I do! Cheers 
I forgot you like tanqueray…have you ever had Hendricks???
Er, no, not had Hendricks… but I’ve got enough gin of various sorts in the house to keep me going all year, so don’t get any ideas!
I must visit again!
Love the juxtaposition of the last two posts and the integration of the spiritual and the (?) sensual illustrated by the source of your advice on improving this year’s batch of sloe gin!
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