What went wrong????

[Nicos]

We've sampled the 2011 Sloe Gin and it's really lovely- but decided to open a bottle of last years.
Problem was that it had thick sediment in it even though it'd been filtered through coffee filter paper when it was bottled.
It gets worse...... the drink smelt very musty and a tiny sip revealed that it was indeed musty and undrinkable.
Such a waste. All the others made at the same time were fine- and the bottle was sterile.

Any ideas why this could have happened????

[Glutton4...]

You left it too long!!! Only lasts a very short while in our house.

[Jeanied]

Did you get cork problems?

[Nicos]

Hmm...come to think about it- it WAS in a bottle with a cork ( normally I keep sloe gin in those flat sloe gin bottles. Hmm.... I think maybe you've hit the nail on the head gal!

[Kleftiwallah]

I had these symptoms in a bottle of sloe gin, I put it down to me cutting slices into the sloes with a knife ('thinks' to extract more flavour) rather than prick them with the regulation silver hat pin.

This year I've made the sloe gin from sloes that have been in the freezer for over a year and unpricked. A few drops of almond extract improves the flavour. Cheers, Tony.

[Hilary B]

For me, personally almond essence would absolutely ruin the flavour of ANYTHING; it's a flavour I hate. Whole almonds are nice, but ground or essence YUCK!
I never do anything to the sloes before adding other ingredients (my freezer tends to be over-full about the time we pick them) but I do add just sugar, and shake the jars, so the granular sugar abrades the skins a bit. Then I leave them a day or several before topping up with gin. It seems to work OK, there is often a bit of sediment (could probably remove that by straining more finely before bottling), but it tastes GREAT!

[Glutton4...]

I always save plastic corks, just in case.

[Nicos]

Good idea- this was a one off pretty bottle with a pretty cork stopper. It was almost give as a Crimble pressie

[brewer]

Hi Nicos,
sorry to hear you had a problem with your sloe gin. I would have thought it was too strong to be affected by bacteria through the cork. Perhaps one/some of the sloes were bad. You could always warm it up and get you gin back ???

[Nicos]

I have to say that I almost filled the Le Parfait jar with sloes before adding the gin. I thought this would increase the flavour.
Hmm brewer- maybe there were a few which wee 'off' - although I thought I'd checked them. Perhaps the fruit:alcohol ratio was too high????

[Hilary B]

I quite often use 'off' fruit to make liqueurs, Strawberry vodka is made predominantly with strawberries so ripe that they are starting to develop mould, it doesn't seem to affect the taste at all. Last year some of the sloes were left in the plastic carrier for 2 days before I had the clean jam-jars and a few were developing penicillin. No problem at all. I also use a very high fruit content.

[Nicos]

Oh!...well now I'm really confused- it was such a waste ( yup- it went down the sink)

I just don't want it to happen again!
It WAS the only bottle of the batch which tastes mouldy ( I've had a wee sip- or two of the others)- and the only one with a cork. And it was stored upright too!

[ohbeary]

Nicos, never pour drink in the sink, if it ain't right put it aside after racking or other remedial processes, I think you had either fruit solids or pectin solids in your sloe gin, never use degraded fruit, only ripe unblemished specimens, strain your sloe gin and allow to settle before siphoning off and bottling.