Where I am today

[Easydrinker]

Let me tell you about those sweats and chills!
I put it down to the end of the man flu.
Still alive, and feeling much better.
I am sorted for the winter
Normal life resumes tomorrow.

Robert.

[Mash]

Welcome back. Pleased to hear you pulled yourself together.. Manflu indeed.

[Easydrinker]

it didn't happen.
i spent a whole other day feeling sorry for myself.
And now I have to work the weekend to play catch up.
I did manage to get a neutral wash started today

Robert.

[gaza the instructor]

Manflu is a deadly virus that wives don't understand or get
and for that matter care about or take any notice of. In my
opinion.
It can render a fully grown man weak and useless for weeks
and is incurable, just like the common cold.

[Easydrinker]

It is a good job that Woman flu does not exist, or the world would grind to a halt

Robert.

[gaza the instructor]

Got news for you ED!!

[Easydrinker]

Bless!
Are you you having to mop Mrs. gaza's fevered brow?

Robert.

[Jennysgin]

Finally putting some rum through for a strip run today.
Daughter: "Ewww, are you making rum again?! It smells absolutely disgusting! "

I think I've put the kids off alcohol, bonus!

[Easydrinker]

Nice one Jen!
Catch them while they are young.
This is not a path that all need to tread.

But for those of us on it, keep following the breadcrumbs...

Robert.

[Moss]

Bit of a different evening tonight - Boris came visiting our little street and took a selfie with our Doris.

https://youtu.be/TfVSGP9m8hg

[Easydrinker]

A bottle of neutral with a flaming rag shoved in the top might have been a good move..

Robert.

[Moss]

A bottle of neutral with a flaming rag shoved in the top might have been a good move..

Robert.

Special Branch would likely have seen their collective arses me thinks

[Easydrinker]

Robert.

[Easydrinker]

Back in October i put some Sloes into some Gin and tried to forget them.
Tonight I tested.
The sloes are nearly puckered and wilted, like half sized raisins, having given almost their all.
It is good. It is VERY good!
Having this batch in the bank means the next few batches can have longer, until the berries have withered to nothing.

Next year. the year after, it doesn't matter, it is a maceration that keeps on giving.
Sloes were a problem to source before last years 18 + Kg harvest.
I am a happy chap.

Robert.

[Mash]

Sloe gin is so much better fresher isn't it? "Nearly puckered" would be a good guide.

If you soak the spent sloes in water for 12 hours and redistill you will be surprised.

[Easydrinker]

I believe that you have Sloe Gin wrong.
But respect your opinion.
Generations have steeped it for the longest possible time.
Why would they do this, if it was better fresher?
You cannae speed up or shortcut all processes.
IMO a Sloe which has sat in Gin for several months and given every last Iota of it's juice and colour, will not give much back after soaking in water and distilling.

Robert.

[Mash]

I see your thinking.
The level extraction will plot like a bell curve, there will be an optimum time. I just think that optimum time is sooner rather than later. Tis just taste and that changes. Bit like frocks - fashions change.

soaking in water and distilling.

I was pleased with the recovery. A delightful delicate spirit, which I lightly sweetened. A pleasant surprise.

Soaking stuff means flavour comes out and spirit goes in. So my thinking was "I am straining out small berries of spirit" Didn't like the idea of the waste, even if it proved to be only junkohol.

[Elecrafter]

Sloe Gin.... OH SH!T.....

Just when i was getting to the end of my bottle of 2015 Sloe Gin.....
I was rummaging around under the stairs looking for something else, when I stumbled across two bottles of Sloe Gin that I had forgotten about as they were buried right at the back.
One is dated 1986, and the other 1996.

A small sample showed them to be in fine fettle.

I suppose I should drink them!
Properly aged Sloe Gin!

Ele.

[Mash]

Give the man a prize

Drinking that stuff much be hard work, but someone has to do it.

[Easydrinker]

Sloe Gin.... OH SH!T.....

Just when i was getting to the end of my bottle of 2015 Sloe Gin.....
I was rummaging around under the stairs looking for something else, when I stumbled across two bottles of Sloe Gin that I had forgotten about as they were buried right at the back.
One is dated 1986, and the other 1996.

A small sample showed them to be in fine fettle.

I suppose I should drink them!
Properly aged Sloe Gin!

Ele.

I would wager that both bottles, if containing Sloes, contain sloes that are totally sucked of colour and juice?
The point that I tried to make above.
I see little point in adding water and re-distilling.
But, each to his or her own.
We reach our own conclussions in lifes experiments.
Thank feck that we are all different.

Robert.

[DorsetScott]

I see your thinking.
The level extraction will plot like a bell curve, there will be an optimum time. I just think that optimum time is sooner rather than later. Tis just taste and that changes. Bit like frocks - fashions change.

soaking in water and distilling.

I was pleased with the recovery. A delightful delicate spirit, which I lightly sweetened. A pleasant surprise.

Soaking stuff means flavour comes out and spirit goes in. So my thinking was "I am straining out small berries of spirit" Didn't like the idea of the waste, even if it proved to be only junkohol.

That's why I put the used sloes into cider, you get a little colour and flavour and a little gin too :p

[Easydrinker]

That is an interesting take on re-using 'spent' sloes.

Robert.

[DorsetScott]

That is an interesting take on re-using 'spent' sloes.

Robert.

I think I picked the idea up from John Wright (avid mycophile, booze hound, River Cottage forager person) and he aptly names it Slider.
May well be because of what happens when you lean against a wall after drinking a few.

I only use still cider for it, and it doesn't store particularly well so best drunk within a couple of weeks. Only needs a few days of the sloes in the cider to work it's magic

[Easydrinker]

I may have to try this with the next batch of 'spent' sloes...

Robert.

[Elecrafter]

Sounds like a plan!

Ele.