Sloe Gin without any sugar???

[Cessemp]

I read the other day that you can make 'slimline' sloe gin without any sugar but rather just use a split vanilla pod in with the sloes and gin. Now I find this hard to believe, surely you would just get a sloe & vanilla flavour gin rather than that lovely feeling as the regular sweet and silky sloe gin trickles down your throat...Anyone tried this 'slimmers' sloe gin?

[Two_Sheds]

Sloes without sugar? No thanks, I like my tooth enamel

[Polly Fouracre]

I always make mine without sugar and invite people to add their own. Some like it very sweet and some, like me only a hint of sweetness.

[Cessemp]

I had thought, like 2 Sheds, that it would be very sour without sugar but that's an interesting idea, Polly, about adding sugar to taste. When I was in Slovenia I made cherry vodka by steeping morello cherries in vodka with sugar - it was delish. Quite fancy making rumtopf too at some point. Nazdravje! (Cheers!)

[Glutton4...]

I made a batch of Sloe Gin that was far too sweet, so I made another batch with less sugar and mixed the two. It didn't occur to me to just add more Gin, d'oh!

I've currently got 2 demijohns on the go, one with Damson Vodka and the other with Blackberry Brandy - should be ready around New Year. Sadly I also have an addiction for home made Limoncello, thanks to you lot!

Cheers!

[Reb Williams]

Sloe and vanilla flavoured gin sounds delicious! If you do make some let us know how it goes.

Reb
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Adventures in a real life Good Life: Grow Your Own Cows

[Hilary B]

You can buy a 'sloe gin' which is unsweetened, so I suppose you could make it that way. It wouldn't suit me, because the sweeteness is part of the 'object of the exercise' (and also part of the flavour extraction process). The only recipe I've ever come across was to remove some gin from the bottle (I think it said a small wineglassful), add a many sloes as will fit, and leave it at least a year.

[northepaul]

Glutton 4 said:
I've currently got 2 demijohns on the go, one with Damson Vodka and the other with Blackberry Brandy - should be ready around New Year.


Without sounding (too) green, please can you tell me how do you make blackberry brandy?

I am making some sloe gin but also love blackberries

[Reb Williams]

northepaul, just do the same thing as you would for sloe gin, only using blackberries and brandy. Just check the brandy you are using first, for sweetness, (tough job but someone has to do it) so you don't overload it with sugar. Different brandies vary slightly. Do it according to your own taste, there's no 'right' answer I don't think.

Reb
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Thanks to all of you who already have Grow Your Own Cows on their xmas list - read samples online

[Alison]

I always make mine without sugar and invite people to add their own. Some like it very sweet and some, like me only a hint of sweetness.

Does the sugar disolve OK? I find that it takes a couple of weeks of regular shaking for the sugar to disappear from the bottom of the kilner jar which I use to make my various concoctions.

[sarraceniac]

Really interesting thread. I have several liqueurs on the go at the moment.

1. sloe gin (with sugar) can't imagine it without.

2. Blackberry gin (with sugar)

3. Blackberry whisky (with a little sugar - sweet whisky - yuk.)

4. Blackberry brandy (with sugar).

5. Banana rum with vanilla and sugar. (Creme de Banane)

6. Banana rum with vanilla (no sugar - strictly for plonkies).

7. Pineapple vodka with vanilla and sugar.

8. My piece de resistance, bilberry gin. With sugar but haven't tried it yet (it's for Christmas). First year but I love the idea.

I also make, in summer, cherry brandy (morello cherries and sugar), creme de cassis (blackcurrants vanilla and sugar).

Anybody alse making these gets a free membership to AA.

[northepaul]

northepaul, just do the same thing as you would for sloe gin, only using blackberries and brandy. Just check the brandy you are using first, for sweetness, (tough job but someone has to do it) so you don't overload it with sugar. Different brandies vary slightly. Do it according to your own taste, there's no 'right' answer I don't think.

Reb
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Thank you! I am sorry to butt in and change the subject

I will definately look into that next year.

[Winged one]

I have a couple on the go at present - raspberry vodka, blackcurrant vodka (just a small one), both with sugar. A jar of cherries in honey rum (brought a bottle back from Canaries in 2002 and it was never even opened!!). A kilner of limoncello.

And I have gathered my gin and spare bottles ready for a good few bottles of sloe gin this winter - we made a single one last year and it disappeared far too fast!!

[Caro]

Obviously everone here is BUYING the original spirit as it would be illegal to distill your own alcohol. But hypothetically speaking, would it be difficult to do?

[sarraceniac]

Obviously everone here is BUYING the original spirit as it would be illegal to distill your own alcohol. But hypothetically speaking, would it be difficult to do?

In theory, no. In practice if you get the distilling temperature too low it just wouldn't vapourise the fermented mash properly and if you get it too high then there is a considerable danger of taking off, not just the ethyl alcohol but, methyl alcohol, which can send you permanently blind or even kill you. So definitely a no-no and not to be recommended.