Talk:Sloe gin

Units

I do not understand the equivalency implied between "4oz" and the "200g" in parentheses. Is the ounce measure meant to be a volume? If it is a mass, then the two seem to be unequal. What is the correct measure of sugar?

It is a typo - thanks for noticing - it should (and now does ) read 100g although it is all a matter of taste and either amount would probably make a drinkable Sloe gin ! Velela 21:32, 20 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Don't agree with the 15 - 30% - this might be true for shop-bought sloe gin, but homemade gin is more potent than gin itself - ie over 40%

Sorry, but it isn't. As someone who regularly makes it and measures the strength, the alcohol in the Gin is diluted both by the water from the fruit and the added sugar. There are no processes used (i.e. no fermentation) than can increase the alcoholic strength, only decrease it. 18:05, 16 June 2006 (UTC)

Im drinking some sloe gin right now, it isnt homemade however it is not commercial, it was bought on Lindisfarne and is made in the traditional way, it is 25% ABV and as previously said the alcohol content cannot be increaed in a liqueur, the sugar is not for fermentation but to sweeten the drink, a liqueur is just an infusion of spirit and other flavours like fruit juices, herbs etc Angryafghan 22:06, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Hi. I would suggest it is going to be related to the ABV of the gin you start out with...If you use standard British Gordan's, then yes it must be less than 38/39% but I make mine with some export strength 47% Bombaby Sapphire, which because I use very little sugar and quite dry sloes, brings it to a cool 40%. --GeologyTom 15:17, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

British?

Is sloe gin a mainly British thing - then it should be categorised as such - or is there anywhere else where it's made?--JBellis 19:58, 12 November 2006 (UTC)

There are "sloe gins" from other countries, particularly from Germany. However, the German term for sloe gin is Schlehenlikör, literally sloe liqueur, since German sloe gin can be made of gin, vodka or white rum, but most commercial brands of German sloe gin are made of neutral grain spirits, like most brands of British sloe gin. Schlehenfeuer is an unusually strong German sloe gin. Technically, a Schlehenlikör made of vodka or rum isn't a sloe "gin", but the same can apply to sloe gin made of neutral grain spirits and in the English speaking world, Schlehenlikör is always considered "German sloe gin. 86.56.0.159 17:49, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

Imperial units: There is a reference to "1 Imperial pint", and then a translation into a metric-related unit: "570 ml), and then US customary measure: ("20 US fl oz"). The translation to metric is closer to 568, so I am correcting that to be accurate to the level of precision that's presented. I also capitalized the "L" in "mL", to conform with typical usage. The US fl oz conversion is incorrect; an Imperial pint is 20 Imperial fluid ounces, or 19.215 US fluid ounces. So it would be more accurate to say "19 US fl oz", accurate to the precision presented. Sloe gin is largely a British thing, so Imperial measure appears to be appropriate. Translating that into international measure is also appropriate, as Wikipedia is an international resource. But there's no good reason to include US measure. The US customary system of measure is neither local to the subject matter, nor internationally standard. So I won't be correcting the conversion to US fl oz; I'll be deleting it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.68.134.1 (talk) 19:30, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Hundreds of millions buy their spirits in metric measures and hundreds of millions more in American pints. No-one buys them in British pints. In the UK both gin and sugar are sold in metric measures and have been for about thirty years. The pint is reserved purely for serving beer in pubs and milk deliveries: spirits and wine are served in metric measures by law, and milk in shops is sold in litres. Metric measures are used for everything in the UK from petrol to paint to cola. UK shops offer 0.7 (occasionally 1.0) litre bottles of gin. What is the point of telling people to use 570 ml? Even before metrication in the UK, gin was actually sold in bottles of 26.67 fl oz, and fractions therof.Sjwells53 (talk) 20:54, 17 September 2012 (UTC)

Actually, I misread it. The article proposes to measure the sloes, not the gin, in pints. The size of the jar and thus the ratio of gin to sloes and sugar, is left entirely to chance. That really is odd. Jars can be of almost any capacity. Given the quantities mentioned here, the jars in my cupboard might require anything from 250ml to 3 litres to fill them up, with very variable results. Presumably the article is suffering from repeated and inconsistent editing. I actually use something like 500g of sloes and 100g sugar to 700ml gin. Like most recipes, it's really a question of ratios, not quantities, so there is no real need to use units at all. I'd hesitate to change it, though, as I'm pretty sure someone will insist on a different ratio being better. Sjwells53 (talk) 21:19, 17 September 2012 (UTC)

Imperial units: when I went to make the edits, I discovered that the conversions were managed by a template. I edited the parameters to the templates, and the results were not exactly as I described in the previous paragraph. I accepted the output of the revised templates as correct. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.68.134.1 (talk) 19:38, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

sugar?

my mum makes it without sugar, and it's great - so I would question the need for sugar mentioned here. raining girl 00:52, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

Depends how quickly you drink it. We have just had to throw away some 2001 vintage because of too low sugar content which allowed a secondary fermentation to establish. If you like sloe gin very dry and can drink it quickly, it might be OK with little or low sugar but this might be better described as sloe flavoured gin. There is no doubt that the osmotic effect of a sugar solution helps to extract maximum taste and colour. It is fairly easy to do the experiments with weighed amounts of berries subjected to different sugar concentrations. It may have to wait 10 months (in the Northern hemisphere ) or 4 months (for those in the south) for fresh sloes to be available for the required experimentation. Velela 15:14, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Pricking?

I have been told that an alternative to pricking each and every sloe is to freeze the berries, a process which splits the skins, saves a tedious task and prevents clothes getting covered in little purple dots.

It is very inefficient in my experience. It might work best if you have very fat sloes, but the best sloe gin tends to be from berries left longer on the bush and that have just started to shrivel. This concentrates flavour and reduces diluting juice. With these sloes, freezing has no effect at all (except to make them colder !). Velela 15:09, 30 December 2006 (UTC)

Hi, I'm no expert, but i freeze my berries so that they are hard and don't squash, then place a single layer in a tray and roll a cheese grater (the spiky bread crumb maker side)over them. this makes nice little holes in the skin to let out the juices, and also makes very little mess. my mum had once tried squashing/cutting the berries to let all the flavor out easier but we found this gave the gin a more bitter flavor, with a dry powdery-ness. not nice! Hope this is helpful! Donnya

• Haha, a Wikipedian making gin with mom. Bravo! Drmies (talk) 18:10, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

was a family effort to win the local pub contest! i hope it was ok for me to comment! i never have before and just thought maybe it could be useful to someone. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2.100.227.24 (talk) 18:23, 13 December 2011 (UTC)

Freezing does affect sloes, no matter what the size. Even if they don't split, the tissues internally are broken down and this probably helps the process of extracting juice. If you neither freeze nor puncture the fruit, a strong solution of sugar will still extract both colour and flavour by osmosis. In normal domestic situations, however, puncturing with a sharp stainless steel skewer or paring knife point should process 500g of sloes in a few minutes, so it's pointless trying to avoid the job. Sjwells53 (talk) 21:06, 17 September 2012 (UTC)

Contradictory instructions

The directions for making this are self-contradictory:

"fill the jar with gin... as well as the almond essence"

Then:

"Made in this way... avoiding the need to add almond essence"

Which is it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.178.238.106 (talk) 19:23, 17 October 2007 (UTC)

Photo

I think we need a photo of a bottle (and glass, if possible) of commercially produced sloe gin. Badagnani (talk) 21:19, 25 August 2008 (UTC)

"Proof"

There are references in the article to the percentage of alcohol by volume, followed by the same information in "proof." It appears that the US formula for proof is used, rather than the formula used in the UK. Since sloe gin is much more of a British drink than an American drink, there's no reason to use the US formula for proof. In addition, the "degree" sign (small superscript circle) is place after the proof reference, which is incorrect usage for US proof (US usage is "76 proof," not "76 degrees proof"). Also, proof varies from place to place in its definition, and which kind of proof is not specified.

Percentage of alcohol by volume (ABV) is much more widely understood and standardized. There is no need to add a value in "proof," which is ambiguous, to the already clear ABV numbers. There is no reason for the proof values to be included, so I am deleting them. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 139.68.134.1 (talk) 19:16, 11 January 2010 (UTC)

Almond flavour

I'm sure I've read that the almond flavour of well made sloe gin comes from a cyanide-based compound in the sloe kernels (very small amount, non-lethal, etc). I can't find a source for this - does anyone have one, or am I just making this up? GyroMagician (talk) 09:25, 25 July 2012 (UTC)

Contradiction in the Manufacture section

Initially only three ingredients are mentioned (sloes, gin and sugar) but later in the article is says that the "berries and spices [can be] discarded". What spices? 83.104.249.240 (talk) 11:02, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

I guess you didn't reach the fourth paragraph in that section? Anyway, I took out the spices for simplicity. Personally, I think the 'pure' version tastes better anyway ;-) GyroMagician (talk) 15:04, 19 December 2012 (UTC)

Drupes

While drupe appears to be the correct botanical name for the fruit of the Blackthorn, I have never heard them called this before. I have always called the fruit 'sloes' - which is also the name given on the Blackthorn page. Is the word drupe commonly used, or should we revert back to sloe? GyroMagician (talk) 15:47, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

Drupes is the botanical names for a particular type of fruit of which sloe is an example. Mentioning drupe once in the article is more than sufficient. The rest of the mentions I have converted back to "sloe" - the common English name.  Velella  ^{Velella Talk}   17:57, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

It reads better now. You also took out the following: "although there is much confusion as to whether this (freezing) is intended to split the drupes and replace the pricking stage, or if, by analogy to ice wine, freezing changes the flavour of the drupes." It could do with a citation, but I think it's still worth including. Thoughts? GyroMagician (talk) 18:25, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

Yes - I looked but could find no citation so I assumed it was POV. Having personally made many batches of sloe gin, both with and without freezing the sloes, I can taste absolutely no difference - but that is also POV! If you can find a reputable source, please feel free to re-introduce it  Velella  ^{Velella Talk}   19:39, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

U.S. Manufacturers/Comparable Liqueurs

Sounds like we need a fuller discussion on this topic. Noting for starters that there is already a subsection called "Related liqueurs". I would be amenable to moving the relevant additions to this section. However, the comparison to cherry brandy is borderline specious. Cherry brandy (and other fruit brandies) are made from distilling the fruit juice. Sloe gin and the cited U.S. versions are more closely related in that they involve soaking the fruits in gin, i.e., the juice from the sloe berries (and aronia and beach plums) is not distilled. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 169.252.4.21 (talk) 22:13, 10 July 2017 (UTC)