Superb sloe vodka recipe
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Liqueurs | 129 comments
Sloe vodka on day one
We have found that most fruit recipes work equally well with gin or vodka. With a few exceptions. Raspberry gin is sublime and dessert gooseberry vodka is to kill for. Their cousins, Raspberry vodka and dessert gooseberry gin are companiable and gluggable but not the super stars of the cocktail cabinet.
We traditionally always make sloe gin. Lots of it. This year I has so many sloes that I decided to give sloe vodka a whirl. A litre of vodka made two 750ml bottles of grog. One for the cellar and one for testing and tasting.
I need to clear a space on the shelves in the barn to put our sloe gin and vodka out of reach. When I do this, it matures quietly, without being disturbed. I haven’t had time to do his so our kitchen side looks like a sloe liqueur drinker’s paradise. It has also had an impact on using the toaster which sits behind the bottles and jars. A careful, crane like movement is needed to operate the toaster.
Late one night, I spotted the sloe vodka on the kitchen side and thought that I’d have a teeny taste. It was wonderful. Clean, crisp, punchy and absolutely delicious. It was barely three weeks old. Made with the sloes that I picked from John’s garden on October 27th.
I had another toot the next night and then waved the bottle in front of Danny’s nose. Then other visitors were introduced to this ambrosia. Reviews were good and glasses refilled.
I am ashamed to announce that our tasting bottle is almost finished but delighted that I tried sloe vodka this year. I hate to admit it but I think that sloe vodka is better than sloe gin.
I had a 800g of sloes in the freezer so Jalopy and I rumbled over to Tesco on Saturday and bought an extra large bottle of medium priced vodka. Made 2 x 75ml bottles as per the above recipe and was left with 570ml of vodka. I added the remaining sloes (336g) and topped up with just over a kilo of sugar. This will produce the really ‘thick’ sloe liqueur that loads of our friends adore. This is the bottle in the photo with the white label. The label is actually the sugar -scary stuff! If we have a super party and a tasting, the sugar lovers will not be left out for years, as they have been in the past. We like the sharp taste of our grog. This bottle will be for sweet toothed visitors only.
If you still have access to sloes try our recipe. You won’t regret it.
I will report back on how the thick sugar solution sloe vodka develops in a few months time!
| Superb sloe vodka recipe |
- 1poud / 500gm of washed sloes
- 4 ounces / 112gm of white granulated sugar
- 2 empty 75cl vodka bottles
- 1 litre of medium quality vodka such as supermarket own brands
- Wash sloes well and discard any bruised or rotten fruit. Prick fruit several times with a fork and place sloes half the sloes in each bottle. I put several sloes in my palm to prick them rather than picking them up one by one.
- Using a funnel, add the sugar and top up with gin to the rim. Always open sugar bags over the sink as sugar tends to get caught in the folds at the top of the bag.
- Shake every day until the sugar is dissolved and then store in a cool, dark place until you can resist it no longer (try to leave for at least three months, we usually let it mature for a year. As you can see from above it was overwhelmingly moreish at three weeks).
- Some people strain the grog (through muslin/jelly bag) after 3 months and bottle it, leaving it mature for six months. We will strain and bottle any that’s left after six moths as I want to try making sloe sherry and slider (farmhouse cider and gin/vodka soaked sloes as recommended into the comments section of our sloe gin posts). Don’t leave the straining process longer than a year; leaving the fruit in too long can spoil the liqueur.
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Well thanks to you at this site ive done my sloe vodka end of Sept. Mid Oct. Well iv had a few diggs at it and its very-very good. I look forward to doing lots more this next season as iv found an old estate that has hedge fulls of them so i will be trying lots more mixes including bacardi sloe. Tell you how it works out . Thanks again.
Am I the only person making sloe gin and vodka in February?
I have finally defrosted the sloes and am going for the kilner jar and the dry sugar osmotic method above. I don’t think all the sloes have split but I reckon they will over the next few days as I shake them up with the sugar!
I find sloe gin a bit sweet usually so have reduced (halved?) the sugar to 4 oz per 2lb jar 3/4 full of sloes. Will that be too dry?
And – I have never added vanilla to sloe gin before so would like to experiment. My vanilla essence bottle looks as though it dates back to the late 60s so I guess that might be “inadequate”. I do have a real vanilla pod. Any ideas how much I should use? I would like a hint of vanilla rather than a vanilla flavour!
Hi
Bottling time is here. Just done my sloe bacardi. Previously when I have served my sloe bacard/gin/vodka I have served it neat. My guests always said…”wow, thats nice”. I think tho that maybe I should be adding some tonic/soda/lemonade.
How do other people prefer their drinks?
Happy drinking.
Maggie
Have been making sloe gin for a few years now and my 2004 batch ( not much left now !! ) is like a liqueur, similar consistency of Drambuie!! And for the first time this year i tried vodka so really looking forward to trying this, For a laugh why not try Skittles vodka, all you need is a small packet of said sweet and add to the bottle of vodka ( after drinking a little so it does not overflow, then as with before, just agitate over a few days and the skittles will dissolve.
Hi Maggie
The gin needs about 6 months to mature ideally. I don’t know why but gin seems to take longer than other spirits.
I haven’t tried slider yet but everyone says it’s great. Personally I would use sparkly.
Hi
I am nearly ready to bottle my liquers. Sloe bacardi and vodka is tasting lovely. But i am not sure on the gin. It is not sweet but still abit bitter. I am not quite sure how its supposed to be when bought from the shops. Whats peoples preference on this?
Also, looking at some older blogs, a recipe for slider seems good way to recycle the sloes. Add the sloes from whatever, I will use the gin, vodka and bacardi and add it to farmhouse cider. Not sure if that is sparkly strongbow or a still cider. I do prefer strongbow or stowford press. Has anyone recently tried this ?
Maggie x
Hello Lynda
Brilliant news – thanks for the update!
Hi just to update, fn, decided to try the orange vodka wuth the sloes and it’s works very well have now got a small amount waiting to be opened at xmas if it lasts that long!! 😉 Liking the idea of cranberry gin Sarah Louise might give that a try!
Hi Sarah Louise
We often drink ours way to early too 🙂
Sunshine at this time of year is such a joy.
Hello Rob
Cranberry gin sounds excellent. Your wife is very lucky indeed.
When I moved house this summer after getting married I found the punnet of half-price cranberries I had bought, intending to try some cranberry and raspberry jam. Needless to say that never happened, but there are several bottles of cranberry gin “resting in the cellar”.
I’m tee-total but a chemistry graduate, so it’s all about the experimentation! The wife will make short work of the grog, I’m sure. Along with the sloe gin and sloe vodka I’ve made this week…
I freeze the sloes, then make the rocket fuel. After a couple of days I drain and then prick them, returning everything to the bottle. Seems to speed the process up – but that’s not proven yet. Good year for sloes. Remember to leave some for the birds, though!