To make sloe gin,
- Pick sloes from a convenient hedge (apparently it is traditional to wait until after a frost in some places, which may well have the effect of breaking up the cell structure and releasing more flavour, as it does for Eiswein; you can also just bung them in the freezer for a while.)
- Take a reasonable handful of sloes, prick them if they've not had the frost/freezer treatment, (wertperch says) and put them with several tablespoonfuls of sugar (about the same volume as that of fruit) into a bottle (75cl or 1l) and top up with gin, genever, peket or any convenient grain spirit. Note that if you are using the bottle that the spirit came in, you'll have to drink your way through the volume of the sloes and sugar in the process because it won't fit. Life may be easier if you can get a demijohn or similar container for the maturing stage, and then decant the liquid into bottles later.
- Leave for six months or so in the back of a cupboard. Maybe a year or two.
- Filter out the gruts before consuming.
Due to the number of variables presented in this process, the degree of precision in the strengths given in Pyro's writeup cannot be guaranteed. It still works perfectly well, though. Ta to wertperch for a couple of things. Update: the same technique can be used with other fruit small enough to be put into the bottle: we also make damson gin in this way, which has the additional benefit of leaving you with a residue of sweetened, alcoholised damsons which are rather nice as a sauce for ice cream; this is not really the case with sloes.