If you are looking for an alternative to wine, you might want to try making sloe wine. It is a deep, dark red wine with a rich taste. Sloes are small, hard, blue-black fruits that are related to wild plums. They take about two years to mature fully. There are many ways to make sloe wine and there are plenty of recipes on the Internet.
Picking sloes is not difficult. The best time to pick them is after the first frost of the season. You can either choose to harvest them yourself or buy them. Ideally, you will want to pick the fruit while it is still ripe and before it becomes too shriveled.
You can use the sloes to make wine, sloe gin or even sloe jam. This type of wine is also great with game and strong cheeses.
For a basic sloe berry wine recipe, you will need some sloes, water, sugar and raisins. Once you have these, you will need to boil the mixture for about 7 minutes. During this time, you should stir the ingredients to dissolve the sugar. When the mixture has cooled down, you can add the pectic enzyme and sulfite.
After the fermentation process is complete, you can bottle the finished wine. If you wish to add a touch of alcohol to your drink, you can add some vodka to the mix. However, you should note that this will give you a stronger drink.
Before you start your sloe berry wine recipe, make sure that you have a warm room to store it in. A warmer room will help the fermentation process. Also, you will want to keep the jar covered at all times. You can also place the jar in a cupboard. Since sloes ferment slowly, you should be able to store the jar for at least six months before you can drink it.
Another option is to freeze blackthorn. This type of fruit contains tannins. Before adding the sugar solution, you will have to cool the berries to prevent the tannins from dissolving.
If you want to make sloe wine, you will need to use english yeast. The yeast will help the fermentation process along. Other than this, there is no other additive in the sloe wine. Although the wine is delicious, it is a very slow wine and it is recommended that you make it at a low temperature.
Sloes are similar to wild plums, and they are an ancient fruit. You can pick them from a thorny bush that grows alongside fields and private property. Typically, the berries are picked between October and December. While picking the berries, you should always inspect the sloes to see if they are ripe. Any rotten fruit should be discarded.
If you decide to make sloe wine, follow these easy steps. Depending on the recipe, you can expect to use about 4 pounds of sloes for every gallon of wine. In addition, you can boil the sloes with raisins.
