I need cheap gin!!!

[Flummery]

Lol! I'm safe then Flum, ain't got no satin! What's your plum brandy recipe then? Would sloe brandy be similar, I've never had wild plums?

Same as for sloe gin really. About 8 oz of fruit - prick them with darning needle to help the alcohol to penetrate (and the flavour to escape!) and about 4 - 6 oz of sugar. This depends on how sharp the fruit is. I'd use the bigger amount for sloes but less for plums. Top up with the bottle of spirit. Shake every day till Christmas. Wild plums near here are golden yellow and quite sweet but none have set this year. You can also get bullaces which are like very big sloes or round damsons, so to speak. These are also missing round here this year and the sloe harvest is down. Bad year for stone fruits really.

[Snadger]

If you look at the alcohol content of shop bought sloe gin it is way down in the twenties. The sloes and sugar just dilute the original gin without adding any alcohol!

But you probably already know that anyway!

[Hazel at the Hill]

£7.50 in Aldi - you're better off in Asda, Manda.

[smallblueplanet]

Thanks Hazel - just looked online for Sains and Asda. Think there must be a gin cartel going on £6.50-odd in both and Tescos! Just gotta check Lidl & Morrisons now.

[di]

Not that you need me to tell you now but just got back from Asda & looked & their "smartprice" was £6.56 for 70cl & 37.5%!!
Also 3 bottles of "lindemans" for a tenna!!...& I was gonna be so good this week as well!

[smallblueplanet]

Ta anyway - at least you know how much it'll cost you to have a go at sloe gin?

Is anyone else doing the sloe sherry afterwards? Very nice it is - I was chatting with the Tesco delivery man about it last night.

[di]

I have several bottles of raspberry vodka & a bottle of blackberry whisky doing their stuff in the kitchen,also picked some rhubarb to pop in another couple of bottles of vodka tomorrow!!Not sure I dare try for anything else!~although if I were to happen upon some willing sloes!!~well would be a shame to see them go to waste!!

[SarzWix]

I can tell you about Morrisons Manda, I was looking the other day - it's more than Tesco/Asda, closer to £7.

[JanieB]

Lidl or Asda. The alcohol content doesn't affect the taste, and you can drink more with the lower alcohol . The Lidl gins taste much like the Gordons that the labels copy.

The alcohol content is dictated by the amount of tax charged by the Government per %age. So 37.5% is the max before the tax goes supercharged.

Hence the Pimms advertising "original" is bo££ocks as they had to reduce the alcohol content to keep the product competitive.

[jackie j]

What do sloe berries look like, are they red ?

[smallblueplanet]

here ya go jackiej

[smallblueplanet]