Home Brew 101 - Sloe Gin
Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2006 1:03 pm
Anyone thinking of turning their hand to home brew could do worse than starting with this failsafe recipe for sloe gin.
Officiniados attribute gin's origin to 17th century Holland. Fortuitously, the juniper based "local brew" found great favour with the British Army of the time, whose troops took "Dutch Courage" from gin's warming qualities while probably trying to understand what they were doing in Holland, and indeed what their part in the Thirty Years War was.
Britain was a nation of "brewers" until this time, the implication being that apart from ciders, beers, and ales, there was no real tradition of distilled liquours. As troops returned with legendary endorsements for the tipple, the art of distilling exploded across Britain. By 1740, distillers (including 9,000 "gin shops" in London alone) produced 11 million gallons of gin annually, according to Cocktail Times, equivalent to 14 gallons per Briton.
Gin's natural partnership with tonic water (and its medically proven anti malarial qualities) sustained British commerce and "Empire" across Africa, India, and the East, and in genteel times gin made life all that more bearable for the sophisticates of the golden age of the transatlantic liners.
By the way, if I do go on, please say.
I like Navy strength Plymouth Gin, if only because of the distiller's claims about authenticity. (Check out the online tour of Black Friar's Distillery). For this "no brainer" home brew, though, use anything but. Any gin will do, giving you a rich red liqueur and a fine talking piece for any tailgater's table.
Ingredients
450g/1lb sloes
225g/8oz caster sugar
1 litre/1¾ pint gin
Method
- prick the tough skin of the sloes all over with a clean needle and put in a large sterilised jar
- pour in the sugar and the gin, seal tightly and shake well
- store in a cool, dark cupboard and shake every other day for a week
- shake once a week for a couple of months, by which time..
- the sloe gin will now be an alluring ruby liqueur, quite drinkable but one that will improve with age
Officiniados attribute gin's origin to 17th century Holland. Fortuitously, the juniper based "local brew" found great favour with the British Army of the time, whose troops took "Dutch Courage" from gin's warming qualities while probably trying to understand what they were doing in Holland, and indeed what their part in the Thirty Years War was.
Britain was a nation of "brewers" until this time, the implication being that apart from ciders, beers, and ales, there was no real tradition of distilled liquours. As troops returned with legendary endorsements for the tipple, the art of distilling exploded across Britain. By 1740, distillers (including 9,000 "gin shops" in London alone) produced 11 million gallons of gin annually, according to Cocktail Times, equivalent to 14 gallons per Briton.
Gin's natural partnership with tonic water (and its medically proven anti malarial qualities) sustained British commerce and "Empire" across Africa, India, and the East, and in genteel times gin made life all that more bearable for the sophisticates of the golden age of the transatlantic liners.
By the way, if I do go on, please say.
I like Navy strength Plymouth Gin, if only because of the distiller's claims about authenticity. (Check out the online tour of Black Friar's Distillery). For this "no brainer" home brew, though, use anything but. Any gin will do, giving you a rich red liqueur and a fine talking piece for any tailgater's table.
Ingredients
450g/1lb sloes
225g/8oz caster sugar
1 litre/1¾ pint gin
Method
- prick the tough skin of the sloes all over with a clean needle and put in a large sterilised jar
- pour in the sugar and the gin, seal tightly and shake well
- store in a cool, dark cupboard and shake every other day for a week
- shake once a week for a couple of months, by which time..
- the sloe gin will now be an alluring ruby liqueur, quite drinkable but one that will improve with age