It is that time of the season when there is a veritable abundance of food and just watching the birds attack the fruit and berries in the hedgerows tells you or good things to be had now. One fruit – the sloe, offers the home brewer an opportunity to produce that paean to Autumn, sloe gin. I noticed one bush amongst the hawthorn on a housing estate in Monmouth which may well just provide plenty of fruit for the taking. Mind you and quite selfishly I might not let anyone else know about it, given the popularity of the fruit to wine makers and the desire to secure my bounty.
The key Ingredient: Sloe
The sloe or blackthorn is a member of the Prunus family, and the species is Prunus spinosa, a smaller berried version, (a drupe) of bullace and damson. Its latin name highlights the thorny nature of the branches and has proved the undoing of many great woolly jumpers. It makes its presence known with glorious blossom in late March or April when there is a cold snap which heralds the blackthorn winter as we call it. Rather like a blueberry, the fruit has a dark blue almost black bloom to it. Like a plum, it is best picked when soft and squashy to the touch. Traditionally, it was thought you had to wait until the first frosts of early October for it to soften and be ready for picking but in reality it’s ready when it can be squished. Leaving it as late as possible implies the fruit will develop as much sugar as possible but let’s face it, most birds like blackbirds understand that too. Birds and squirrels will take a hefty portion of the fruit before I’ve fought my way to it. If you try one of the fruits you are instantly hit by extreme mouth puckering. The fruit is tannin rich and contains a variety of polyphenols.
Recipes for sloe gin vary with the drinker. I take a wide-necked stoppered flagon or bottle which is filled with pricked sloes. Incidentally, pricking the sloe with a thorn or a silver fork is the traditional method. Pricking allows the gin easier access to the contents of the berry and presumably a silver fork helps because of the anti-microbial nature of this metal. Usually, about 4 ounces of sugar is combined with 1 pint of berries. The rest of the jar is filled with as a high a quality of gin as can be afforded. Poor quality gin simply spoils the whole operation. It is sealed, shaken carefully to mix and placed in a dark cool place where it needs to be turned regularly for over three months at least.
After three months, the brewer is left with a ruby red liquor which needs to be decanted off and probably filtered. The sloes are discarded or can be used for other products but generally, it is the alcoholic liquid I’m most interested in. The liquor is decanted to remove any sediment after a week of standing and then bottled. Other spices like cloves or cinnamon can be added but why bother when the sweetness and almond-like aroma of the fruit flavours in the gin can pervade the glass.
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