Recipe - Sussex Moonshine aka Sloe Gin for Christmas

Just finished making our first early batch of sloe gin (fondly called Sussex Moonshine in our house) for Christmas gifts, although we always seem to keep it all!  We thought we would share our Sussex recipe - as it is simple and delicious (even if you dont like Gin!) and whilst the picking took a sunny hour - you can whip this up in 10 minutes.
Sloes can be picked now - but are usually best from October after the first frost.  But as we are in Sunny Sussex we can get away with pinching the best ones early.. then we cheat by sticking them in the freezer overnight, which tricks them into a super tasty flavour.

1 litre of Gin -  and find an extra 1 litre glass bottle
400g of sloe berries (per1 litre bottle)
150g (about 1 wine glass) of sugar per 1 litre bottle

Pour the gin out of the bottle
Prick all the berries with a fork and pop back in the bottle. (400g per 1 litre bottle)
Pour the sugar on the top (150g per bottle)
Pour 500ml of the gin back into each 1 litre bottle leaving a bit of air at the top for movement
Swill the mixture round
Repeat swirl daily for the two weeks
Swirl weekly until 6-10 weeks later.
Sieve out the sloes and decant into steralised pretty bottles.(or you can leave them as they are, but for no more than a year)
It is ready to drink for Christmas - but is even better if left till the following year!

You can also make the same recipe using Vidka - which we have just trialled - one bottle the same and the other with double sugar for a sickly sweet liquer taste which is fabulous with Champagne.  Roll on the New Year party...

So go make some moonshine!