I finished filtering the Sloe Gin and Sloe Brandy which I started in the autumn. Each drink was made using 750ml of spirit, 200g sugar and 800g of sloes. Last time I made it pricked the sloes. This time I froze them for a couple of weeks to help break down the fruit and split the skins.

The brandy tastes slightly sweeter than the gin. Both drinks are a bit on the sweet side - they may have benefited from slightly longer on the berries, or maybe slightly less sugar.

Each bottle of spirit turned into about 1 litre of sloe liqueur. I tipped all the left over sloes into a 2 litre jug, ready to make another sloe infusion.

A few years ago we made some 'schnapps' using a kit which ferments to 20% alcohol. The kit was reduced because it was out of date. Everything was ok apart from the flavour sachet, which had lost colour and separated out. We bought some peach flavouring from the homebrew stall on the market to make 1 litre of peach schnapps. We added vanilla essence to the other litre to make a vanilla schnapps.

The peach drink was fine. We drank most of it at the Leeds Festival that year, adding it to a mugful of Liptons iced tea, which when heated made a good warming night time drink. The vanilla drink, on the other hand, was disgusting. Over the years I occasionally experimented with mixing it with various drinks, to try to find a combination which was palatable. So far no success.

With just over 1½ kilos of sloes going spare, and no spare gin or vodka in the house, I thought I'd see if a Sloe Schnapps would work. I'll give it a few months in the jug before I give a verdict.