Sloe Gin: Arguably the Best Thing about Autumn

HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE SLOE GIN

Here at Richard Brendon we love making things by hand. We also think our Cut Crystal glasses deserve to be filled with a delicious tipple every now and again. So funnily enough when Autumn comes around, we're big fans of making (and drinking) homemade Sloe Gin. 

We're currently in season for picking sloes in England at the moment so Richard and our four-legged friend, Monty got on the case pretty quickly. During a recent weekend away in Somerset, between the two of them they gathered buckets of sloes and brought them back to the studio so we could start making our own gin. It goes without saying we'll be using our good friends at Sipsmith's essential guide as a recipe, concocted by none other than Jared Brown, because in the months we can't make our own, we're drinking theirs!

For all of our non-European friends, sloes are a variety of plums, similar to the "Beach Plum", which is found in the East Coast of the US. You can use the same Sipsmith recipe but we'd recommend you leave the plums to soak for a little longer. 

1. Ensure you pick the sloes when they're ripe (to tell, give them a little squeeze and if they have a bit of give then they're ready).

2. Put the sloes in a freezer bag and freeze them for a day or two to rupture the fruit, allowing the flavour to leak out whilst they're sitting in the gin.

3. Tip the frozen sloes into a bottle, so it fills up just over halfway. Top the rest of the bottle off with your favourite, good quality gin. We recommend Sipsmith for this recipe.

4. Leave in a sealed bottle for at least 3 months (preferably longer)

Over the next few months our gin will be slowly taking shape; and we'll be back in December to share with you some of our favourite Sloe Gin cocktails, and how to serve them. In the meantime we'd recommend batch-making some of your own Sloe Gin - they're the best gifts for gin lovers!