Making Sloe Gin ... iStill Style!

Introduction This post deals with what it is, how it is made, and how iStill helps you produce better sloe gin in a more economical manner. What is sloe gin? Sloe gin is a traditional English liqueur, made from - you guessed it - gin and sloes. It is traditionally consumed at and around Christmas. And is integral to the UK hunting scene, where it is the drink of choice. Sloe gin is usually 25 to 35% strong, sweetened, and bright red in color.

Now that looks delicious ...

How is sloe gin made? For around 150 liters of sloe gin, this is the traditional way to go:

1. Pick 50 kilo's of ripe sloes;
2. Wash them with water;
3. Puncture them with a fork or tooth pick;
4. Throw them into your maceration tank;
5. Add 25 kilo's of sugar;
6. Add 100 liters of gin;
7. Macerate for 8 - 10 weeks;
8. Strain the berries out of the liquid;
9. Bottle the sloe gin.

Fresh sloe berries ...

Making sloe gin ... iStill style! The amazing extractor technology, that iStill designed, makes sloe gin production very easy. Here is the procedure:

1. Pick 5 kilo's of ripe sloes;
2. Wash them with water;
3. Puncture them with a fork or tooth pick;
4. Throw them into the iStill Extractor;
5. Add 100 liters of gin to your iStill;
6. Choose the Extraction Program and let it run for 8 hours;
7. Add the sugar and mix it in;
8. Bottle the sloe gin directly from your iStill.

iStill Extractor ...

Explanation Instead of making sloe gin via maceration, we propose to use our Extractor technology. Basically you load your iStill with gin. That gin is then used to extract flavors and color from the sloe berries, that sit in the Extractor. When the extraction is done, you have created a sour slow gin in the boiler of your iStill. Add the sugar and mix it in. You can now directly syphon the ready to bottle sloe gin from the iStill's boiler. This example is for around 150 liters of sloe gin. Using different sized iStills and Extractors, please know the recipe is perfectly scalable. Depending on the size of your iStill and Extractor, you can now make anything from 100 to 5000 liters of sloe gin per day! Benefits There are two major benefits to the iStill style of sloe gin production. First, you only need 10% of the berries to get to the same flavor and color levels as maceration does. This means you can save 90% on your most essential substrate: the sloe berries (and the ordeal of picking them). Put differently - if the amount of sloe berries is your bottle-neck - you can now produce 10 times more sloe gin, when using a similar amount to the traditional maceration approach! The second big benefit of using iStill's technology, when making sloe gin, has to do with time. Maceration, the traditional way of how to produce a sloe gin, takes up to 10 weeks. Sloe gin production iStill style takes a day. This means that if people, tank size, and throughput time are essential to your production schedule, the iStill approach saves you up to 90% of time, energy, and money invested.

iStill Automated Sloe Gin Extraction Program ...

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