Have You Started Your Sloe Gin Yet? When to Pick Sloes, and Do You Need a Frost?

Ready, steady… sloe. The hedges around Castle Ashby are heavy with sloes this year. If you have a bottle of last year’s sloe gin tucked away, Christmas is sorted. If not, now is the time to pick for next year, and it will be all the better for the wait.

Pick sloes when they are plump and well ripened. You do not need to wait for the first frost. Frost splits the skins so the juice runs into the gin, and a night in the freezer does the same job.

Why are there so many sloes this year?

Summer 2026 was the hottest on record for the UK, according to the Met Office. England was 2.5C warmer than average, had only around two thirds of its usual rain, and July was its driest on record. The Woodland Trust says the very dry conditions are forcing trees and shrubs to put out as much fruit as they can, and its Nature’s Calendar recorded the first ripe blackberry on 26 June, two months earlier than expected. In a very dry year some sloes stay small and shrivelled, so pick the plump ones.

How do you tell a sloe from a damson?

Sloes grow on blackthorn and look like tiny purplish plums. They are round and cluster tightly along the branches. If the fruit is oval and hangs from stems, it is probably a damson. Blackthorn lives up to its name, and with bare hands it is soon blackthorn 1, you 0, so a good pair of gloves is worth having. The sweetest sloes are on the sunny side of the hedge, and picking from waist height up leaves plenty for the wildlife.

How do you make sloe gin?

You will need:

• 450g sloes
• 225g caster sugar
• 1 litre bottle of gin
• A large clean jar with a tight lid

1. Wash the sloes and freeze them overnight.
2. Tip them into the jar, add the sugar and pour in the gin.
3. Seal the jar and give it a good shake.
4. Keep it somewhere cool and dark. Shake it every other day for the first week, then once a week.
5. After at least three months, strain it through muslin into clean bottles.

Is it worth leaving it longer?

Yes. Sloe and steady wins the race 😉 Sloe gin improves the longer you leave it, and a year is ideal, so a batch made now will be at its best by next Christmas. Strain and bottle it in the new year, then put it away and try to forget about it.

How do you drink it?

Neat or over ice on a cold evening, with tonic and a slice of orange, warmed through as a mulled sloe gin, or a splash in a glass of fizz for a sloe royale on Christmas Day.

So, are you a traditionalist who waits for the first frost, or a pop-them-in-the-freezer person? Tell us, and share your secret if you have one.

If you enjoyed this, you might like our countryside update on where all the acorns and conkers have gone.

Where this comes from: summer 2026 weather from the Met Office; early fruiting from the Woodland Trust. Last updated: October 2026.