Two recipes: Wild Damson Gin and Sloe Gin recipes
Posted September 5, 2006 
Comments(343)
Comments(343) 
Wild damsons are hard to find. For every thirty wild plum trees there may be just one wild damson tree. When I spot wild damsons in the hedgerows, they are harvested into a special bag. These, and the diminutive bullace, are the kings of hedgerow fruit. These tiny fruit make such an irresistible liqueur that overnight guests have actually turned down Danny’s famous cooked breakfast, and gone back to bed to sleep off the excesses of the night before.
Our damson and sloe gin is not the thick ultra sweet variety. We prefer the sugar to enhance rather than shield the flavour. Every three months or so it’s sampled and, if necessary, topped up with sugar. Usually no extra sugar is needed. We try to keep our damson and sloe gin well away from the drinks tray! Each year we make a lot of fruit gin and vodka (more recipes to follow, in time). Sloe gin is the big craze at the moment around here, as sloes are more plentiful. Here are our recipes for both. We are also starting experimenting with sloe gin see this post for details.
Wild Damson Gin Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1lb/454gm of washed wild damsons
- 6 ozs/168gm of white granulated sugar
- 75cl bottle of medium quality gin
- Sterilised 1 litre (at least) Le Parfait jar or wide necked bottle with stopper/cork
Method:
Wash damsons well and discard any bad or bruised fruit. Prick fruit several times with a fork and place damsons in either a large Kilner/Le Parfait jar or a wide necked 1 litre bottle.
- Using a funnel, add the sugar and top up with gin to the rim.
- Shake every day until the sugar is dissolved and then store in a cool, dark place until you can resist it no longer (leave for at least three months, we usually let it mature for a year). If you are planning to drink this after 3 months, have a nip afetr a month, and top up with sugar to taste.
- Some people strain the grog (through muslin/jelly bag) after 3 months and bottle it, leaving it mature for six months. We strain and bottle after a year. Don’t leave the straining process any longer than a year; leaving the fruit in too long can spoil the liqueur, as we found to our cost one year.
Sloe Gin Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 1lb/454gm of washed sloes
- 4 ozs/112gm of white granulated sugar
- 75cl bottle of medium quality gin
- Sterilised 1 litre (at least) Le Parfait jar or wide necked bottle
- 2-3 drops of almond essence
Method:
- Wash sloes well and discard any bruised or rotten fruit. Prick fruit several times with a fork and place sloes in either a large Kilner/Le Parfait jar or a wide necked 1 litre bottle. I put several sloes in my palm to prick them rather than picking them up one by one.
- Using a funnel, add the sugar and top up with gin to the rim. Always open sugar bags over the sink as sugar tends to get caught in the folds at the top of the bag.
- Add the almond essence.
- Shake every day until the sugar is dissolved and then store in a cool, dark place until you can resist it no longer (leave for at least three months, we usually let it mature for a year).
- Some people strain the grog (through muslin/jelly bag) after 3 months and bottle it, leaving it mature for six months. We strain and bottle after a year. Don’t leave the straining process any longer than a year; leaving the fruit in too long can spoil the liqueur.
-
- Make more than you need the first year, so you can compare different vintages. This liqueur does improve over time.
- Some people drain the grog through muslin after a couple of months, to clarify the liqueur and bottle. We don’t bother as one old soak tipped that, once the gin is drunk, you can pour medium sherry on the fruit and start all over again! The latter is devilish and drinkable within three months. We have a recipe for this in our wine and gin section.
- Keep your fruit gin away from the light as this will maintain the colour. Unless it is in a dark green or brown bottle. Wrapping it in brown parcel paper will keep out the light.
- Make notes on a label of your fruit gin/vodka /sugar ratio and stick it onto the bottle(s) so that you have a record, if you make a particularly good batch. We note our responses as the grog matures. Yucky after sixth months can be to die for in a year (you will probably not remember without notes). Notes seem boring when you are making the grog but they are so worthwhile when you start again the next year. It won’t be long before you will get a feel of what works well for your taste (and the notes will come into their own).
- Adding almond essence to sloe gin lifts it from good to great. I haven’t tried this with the damson gin but return in a years’ time for our review.
- Don’t kill the liqueur with too much sugar at the start. Use the amount above to start your sloe or damson gin and then every couple of months take a tiny sip. At this time add more sugar if it is too sharp for your taste.
- Gin v Vodka? Vodka can be used as the spirit for these recipes. Although I’m a vodka drinker, we tend to stick to a gin base for our fruit liqueurs.
- A good damson gin can be made from ordinary damsons available in the shops. As they are bigger you would need to put them into a larger Le Parfait jar (I’d use a 2 litre size).
- People have been picking sloes from September 1st around here. Some people say that you shouldn’t pick sloes until after the first frost. This can be circumvented by putting your sloes in the freezer overnight. We don’t bother with either method and always have great results.
- This year we have made up a number of small (1lb honey jars) of sloe gin to give as Christmas presents.
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We have a bumper crop of damsons this year and have just been merrily harvesting, looking forward to following the recipes for damsons on your site! Especially the gin tipple
This is a fantastic web-site and I will no doubt be visiting frequently – thanks!
Best wishes
Linda
Hi Linda,
I am delighted that you have a bumper crop of damsons! We don’t have damsons growing in our garden but I have found a few trees growing wild in the hedgerows locally…
So pleased that you like our site!
Have just been given a carrier bag full to the brim of damsons! I’m seven months pregnant at the moment so I’m not drinking, but am looking forward to trying the damson gin, as soon as I am able too! (Should be able to make a few bottles!)
Thanks for the recipe!
Hi Jo,
Lucky you being given a decent haul of damsons.
Hope that you like our recipe!
Thanks for the recipes and ideas – keep up the good work.
Now I live in Bulgaria there are many different kinds of plum trees; they seem to grow everywhere and are used to make a fiery brandy called rakia, which always seems to be drunk with salad.
Can you tell me how to tell a damson from a tree that simply produces rather small plums? Are they really the same thing and does it matter?
Some years ago I made some damson gin, at least I thought I had, however, I am now fairly certain that I actually used bulaces because they were so very, very sweet. Am I correct in thinking that a bullace is round – rather than plum shaped – and somewhat smaller than a damson?
Whatever I had used, the reults were wonderful, so good, I drunk it all myself!
Hi Pat
The wild damson fruit is smaller and slimmer than a wild plum. The bowl in the picture is full of wild damsons, the bowl is about eight inches across. Damsons are quite sour when tasted.
Bullaces are wild greengages, they are yellowish when ripe and are chubbier than a wild plum. They have a plum shape. They taste exactly the same as a greengage and are ripe towards the end of September in the UK.
Sloes are round and dark and smaller than a damson.
Damsons, sloes, bullaces and plums are all related (albeit distantly). I’m sorry but I can’t identify the fruit that you used for your gin.
Bullace brandy is a big hit in our village. It is made by the old villagers. I have found where the bullaces grow, now I just need the recipe!
Thanks for the information; I will have to keep looking through my gardening books to see if I can find some pictures and compare the differences so I know what I’m using.
Here there is a type of plum that seems to fruit the earliest, which is the size and shape of a rather large grape. It starts off a kind of apricot yellow colour in May when it’s edible but not sweet, by June it turns pinkish yellow and getting sweeter, if left until July it turns a deep red colour and is almost like eating sugar. They seem to grow all over the place, including hedgerows and although I don’t have one in my garden there are a couple in a piece of spare ground next door, so next year I’ll try these in my gin.
Meanwhile, a friend assures me that they have a lot of sloes, so I’ll use your recipe to make sloe gin – assuming I can ever get past the 3 months stage without having tested it all away!
Dear Pat,
Down here in darkest Devon, have found Damsons whilst on a recce. for sloes. Didn’t know they are o.k. in Aug. Found your site just in the nick of time. Happy days. regards Jenny
Hi Pat,
The range of hedgerow fruit is massive, isn’t it. I have found Richard Mabey’s book, “Food for Free” very handy for identification purposes.
Hi Jenny,
Lucky you finding wild damsons, they are rare and make this best gin tipple.
Brilliant, i’ve finally found a site with wild damson and sloe gin recipes. I have both growing in my garden so better get busy making. I wondered if you could tell me where to get bottles/jars from for making the gin, and also wondered if you could use elderberries in gin or vodka as can’t find any recipes anywhere?
Hi Louisa,
We are impressed that you have sloes and wild damsons growing in your garden! Where do you live?
When you make fruit gin you will be left with the bottles that contained the gin. If the fruit is small, you can use these bottles to hold the sloe or damson gin. The fruit and sugar take up quite a bit of space – so you will need more empty bottles. Approximately a third more.
If the fruit can not pass through the neck of a bottle you need a Le Parfait jar (the sort of jar that has a large lid and seal). We bought our jars locally at the kitchen shop. They are a good investment as they can be used year after year. We sterilise the rubber rings each year. Some people replace these each year. These rubber seals are generally available at John Lewis.
If you or friends are going to France in a car ask them to bring back some Le Parfait jars as they are so much cheaper over there.
Elderberries in gin? I haven’t tried this but think it would work. I’d fill the container a quarter full with destalked elderberries and top up the container with enough sugar to reach half full (they are very bitter) before adding the gin. I am going to try this myself and will report back around Christmas. I think that it would work well but there are no guarantees. If no one is making elderberry gin, there could very well be a reason for this desert. Or it could be that you are the first person to think of this, Louisa. Time will tell!
Hello & Greetings from Portland Dorset.
I think everybody down this end of the country will agree that we are ahead of the season by at least 3-5 weeks. Not sure if its the sun/rain that’s done it, but this time last year, the sloes were small and green.
Today with the help from my friend we where picking fat juicy black sloes from the old railway line in Weymouth. Not even looked at the island stock yet, but I am sure they will be just the same.
Last years gin just does not have the colour of 2005’s batch, but tastes good none the less. I put this down to picking just a tad too early maybe. This year however is a bumper crop year and I intend to make some now and then re pick at the end of Sept and make another batch then.
The trouble is hiding a bottle or two so that it has a chance to mature lol and not get drunk. I should have also started buying in Gin way back, so that the cost is spread out over the year. Have stuck with Asda Gin again, which as well as being cheaper, is still not bad on taste.
Could anybody tell me how to produce the thicker version of sloe gin that I have seen and is like a very strong liquor and very dark in colour.
Going to be a very busy month as I have just been rung from my friend, who has told me the apples are ahead of time too and we need to start thinking about cider production
. 15 gallons last year and maybe 30 gallons this year….. Hic. 
Hi Christof,
Thanks for dropping by and leaving the tip that sloes are early this year. I must go and forage at the weekend.
I hide a few bottles in the cottage and forget about them. The discovery is always a joy.
The thick sloe gin has masses of sugar in it. My aunt used to make the thick type, it takes a good few years to mature. Unfortunately I don’t have the recipe and she died before I got into making fruit liqueurs.
I am really keen to try making cider this year. Do you have a good recipe?
Thanks for the recipes – I had intended to make damson wine, but will start with damson gin instead. A friend suggested that if I start damson gin now, at Christmas can remove fruit from jar carefully, de-stone them and then roll them in chocolate for a delicious home-made chocolate liqueur.
It sounds scrummy…!
Hi Kate M,
Great idea. I’m going to forage for damsons this weekend and make the liqueur chocs for Christmas too. Thanks for the tip.
HI Ikea do a range of sealed glass jars which are cheap and eminently suitable for fruit gins.
Thanks for the tip, Hilary.
I’ve just been to visit friends who have a couple of ancient damson trees in their garden. This year they had a bumper harvest – so many they couldn’t give them away!!
Over the weekend we made jam (2kg damsons 2kg sugar 700ml water = yummy) and I’ve brought home a cooking pot full of ripe damsons. Damson gin here I come….
Keith.
For the first time in my life I am picking fruit from my garden and they are damsons. Moved here last year. Thank you for a great website. I have a bumper crop and am busy making Christmas presents. I managed to find some good jars at Ikea for only £1.49. Thanks for the tip for the gin at Asda.
Hi Rosalind,
Lucky you having your own damson tree. Damson gin is a fabulous present. Those Ikea jars are great value – worth a trip just to get the jars. Thanks for leaving a comment.
Hi Keith,
Thanks for dropping by. Hope the damson gin works out well for you!
Hi eveyone
Just bought 1 1/4lb Damsons from a road side farm up in the lake looking forward to making some Damson gin for the first time.
so thanks for the recipes will let you all how i get on.
thanks Darren
hi
Just wondered dose anyone now of agood recipe for making strawberry vodka.If so please could you let me now.
Many thanks
Darren
p,s
GREAT WBSITE :~}
Hi Darren,
Thanks for leaving a comment! Hope that your damson gin is a success. Sorry but I don’t know of a good recipe for strawberry vodka. Perhaps someone out there does?
Greetings once again from Portland, site of the 2012 sailing olympics
.
Just an update to what I said about the Sloes being ahead. Checked my island stock and it seems they are only a couple of weeks ahead. So on the whole things are advanced but different sites are at different stages. What is making the difference it seems is the amount of sun a site gets. The sloes on the island are shaded in the parts where I go.
As for the cider am more than happy to help you out. Drop me a line to Arachne75@hotmail.com Its more to do with how you do it than what you use, I find with cider. Trouble is I love the fresh juice just as much as the cider, so I have to watch that not too much gets frozen down in juice form lol
This year I am intending to freeze my sloes down first, to try out the practice of waiting for the first frosts to bruise the fruit. However I am using my chest freezer to do mother natures work for me lol.
Have managed to collect about 20lb of sloes so I intend to lay down right up too christmas…
Christof
20lbs of sloes, what a daemon forager you are Christof!
I’d love to hear about you cider making secrets so I am going to email you immediately.
Thanks for taking the trouble to return with an update. It is different all over the country. The wild plums are not quite ready around here, haven’t had a mo to check the sloes yet.
hi,
Just thought i’d say thanks to everyone for the tips and recipes and where to get jars from. I found some great cheap le parfeit jars from “The Range” in gosport hampshire. Had a bumper crop of elderberries in the garden this year so i’ve had a bash at making elderberry gin (thanks for the tips) it already looks a fantastic colour and i look forward to sampling it. Have also made some wild damson gin, just the sloe gin to go and might make some damson vodka. Had so much fruit in the garden this year that i,ve had a go at making plum jam, wild damson jam and elderberry jelly, never made anything like this before in my life, but really enjoyed myself, now i just have to find enough people to eat it all lol.
Hi Louisa,
Great to get the update.
It’s fun using garden/hedgerow produce to make tasty preserves and gin. It’s one of my favourite passions.
Thanks for the tip about ‘The Range’ in Gosport, Hampshire.
Hi,
Great damson and sloe gin recipes, have been out collecting damsons and blackberries today. Has anyone tried making blackberry gin, thought we might give it a go.
Have made both damson jam and sloe gin for years (drinking last year’s now!!), but am determined to keep some damsons back from the jam pot in order to make damson gin this year. Just had a great time reading all your tips, so thought I’d give you one of my own. We recycle the 5ltr plastic containers that we buy vinegar in (I make heaps of chutney as well) and use them for gin making. Once rinsed and sterlised they’re great as the neck is wide enough to get the fruit into easily, the resultant gin is easily decanted and the waste remains nicely packaged for disposal!
Great to discover so many fellow foragers and fruit infusers! I’ve already made up two batches of damson gin (some bought, some wild (not telling where – most not quite ready yet!). I have also tried a small batch of elderberry gin and am grateful for the tip about extra sugar – thanks.
This year’s grand experiment: ‘FESTIVE SPIRIT’ – 75cl wild damson, elderberry and blackberry gin, infused with a little orange zest, cinnamon and half a clove (easy does it). Will let you know…
I use the cheap Ikea jars and they’re fine, but be warned: you may need to use two seals in order to get a full liquid seal. Also, they are not as robust as the French jars and the tops can chip – fortunately this has not happened to me with a full jar of matured gin…
Finally, I made a trial batch of damson vodka in 2006 and it was beautiful – had a hint of almonds in it and was very mellow after 3 months. Will be adding it to the repertoire from now on.
Hi folks
We have just used you recipe with the hint of almond to start this years batch. We are amongst a group of nine neighbours all making a bottle each which will be judged at the festive season; the only rules are that we have to use a supermarket brand gin, 500g of our next door neighbours damsons and cannot substitute with our previous years efforts ( not that there is much left of that!).The winners receive a fabulous prize ,of course!
Hey Darren,
You were asking about Strawbery liqueur. It’s yummy and I’ve used blackberries in place of strawberries and also raspberries and it works well with either.
Hull enough perfect strawberries to fill a preserving jar or wide necked bottle. Prick each berry a few times with a cocktail stick and pop into jar or bottle. Add caster sugar to come about a third of the way up the jar and top up with vodka. Seal and keep in a cool dark spot for 3 to 6 months. Strain thru muslin and re-bottle. ENJOY!!
Well after walking the dog and searching on the net as to what is growing around the fields near me i discovered there are damsons and sloes a plenty.
)
Yesterday we picked the damsons and i have two jars of Damson vodka on the go now and im just simmering another 2 lbs for the damson cheese.
Cant wait to see how that turns out hope i get it right. Will be making Sloe gin next month when they are ready for picking.
Thanks for the recipes
Hi Irene
Many thanks for the recipe for the straberry vodka I will get on to making some straight away.
hopfully should just be ready in time for christmas so i can give my mum a bottle as a prestent she really likes it.
So i will let you now how i have get on.
Dany thanks Darren
The plums that Pat (Thornton) describes as:
“It starts off a kind of apricot yellow colour in May when it’s edible but not sweet, by June it turns pinkish yellow and getting sweeter, if left until July it turns a deep red colour and is almost like eating sugar. ” …is probably the mirabelle plum – a classic north French plum, particularly around Metz, – long ago they were very common in UK, but now you only find them self-seeded in the hedgerow – I have a local tree here in S. Yorkshire. Best for eating and jam making (if you can resist not eating them all), and in Metz they make a brandy with it (but I don’t have the receipes.)
I am really happy to have found this site. Might try making a elderberry gin myself – there is a great crop of elderberry locally.
Ray
Hi Sam,
You need to be a bit careful with blackberry gin, whisky and vodka. If you leave the blackberries in too long they impart their woodiness to the grog. Three months is tops for infusing.
Hi Linda,
Thanks for the tip about the vinegar jars. We use Le Parfait jars but the initial outlay is big. Your recycling idea is much better.
Have you tried damson sherry with the left over damsons. The method is the same as sloe sherry. Our recipe is here http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=104
Lethal, wonderful stuff!
Hi Pete,
Your festive spirit sounds wonderful. May have to give it a go before you report back. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Don and Julie,
I do hope that you win. If not, the grog is pretty good for drowning your sorrows. Taste it each month and adjust. Don’t forget to note your adjustments for next time.
Hi Irene,
Your recipe has my mouth watering. Thanks so much for posting the strawberry vodka recipe.
Hi Debbie,
I hope that both our recipes work well for you. There is nothing like foraging for fruit and making delicious preserves and grog.
Thanks for dropping by.
Hi Ray,
Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment. Some friends put sweet plums in a large jar and cover with brandy and a dessertspoonful of sugar to start them off. After a year or so they strain off the liquor to mature and serve the plums as a topping for ice cream. It takes about two more years before the brandy tastes really good. Worth the wait.
Hi, i’ve just made sloe gin but didnt sterilise the bottle! Will it keep ok or do i have throw it away? Maggs
Hi Mags,
Don’t worry. I am pretty sure that you don’t need to throw it away. When we make fruit gins we collect gin bottles, with the caps, on for a few months. I never sterilise these as they contained gin. Sprits, unlike wine do not go off once they have been opened.
I only sterilise Le Parfait jars or bottles that have been used to contain something else. Just to be on the safe side.
With wine making it’s a completely different story and every bit of equipment has to be sterilised.
So depending on what bottles you used, you are probably OK. It is probably a wise move to sterilise all bottles before use, just in case.
Phew!! Thanks for the information.Its my first attempt so I’m hoping it will turn out ok!Many thanks, Maggs
A bloke down the pub (our tame countryman) gave me about 5lb of damsons this week. Tomorrow, some of them go into gin.
He reckons that there are millions more damsons where he took his from (an old, abandoned farm) and he must have given away 30lb or more.
He’s given me some rough directions, so I may go and get some more.
Hi Mark
Lucky you. I have drawn a blank on finding wild damsons around here this year, except for a few.
I have found a bumper crop in our local hedgerows but we do not use white sugar, only demerara, is it OK to use for damson Gin?
Paul
Do sloes go soft when ripe? The ones I have seem to, or could they be something else. About the size of cherries
Hi Paul,
You can use brown sugar for fruit gin but it just doesn’t seem to taste as good. Heaven knows why. If I had to use brown, I’d go for the palest brown sugar.
Hi Beryl,
It’s difficult to say without seeing the fruit. Sloes are round. Wild damsons are more like an olive in shape. I have a picture of a wild damson, a bullace and a cherry or wild plum here http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=432
Hello Pat.
Damson’s are a little late this season around here, (nott’s area) but testing the sloe’s they appear on course for late Oct/ Nov; harvesting. I’ve never known sloe’s ready for picking in August, even as boy when living in glorious Devon. I think the key to the taste lay’s in harvesting fruit when ripe.
Pricking the fruit?. Far to laborious for me. (i’m lazy). This is my routine. After picking over and destorking, the fruit is washed in warm water, being slightly warm help the drying stage. Next place two or three handfull’s of fruit at a time in a s/steel baking dish. Then using a s/steel potatoe masher lightly crush them to break skin’s.( if you follow my method do’nt do your money on plastic masher’s, John Lewis sell good s/steel one’s). To keep light out of bottle, drop a serial box over them, quick and easy for dayly shaking. :-L~~ Good exercising in it?. I’m interesed how other’s find this method.
I’m working on an idea to squeeze the last drop of liquid from the pulp (yes i’m also mean). Let you know if it’s successful.
Excellent site.
Regard’s. Peter.
Hi Peter,
I pick some sloes now and freeze them just in case the hedgerows are bare at the end of October. I agree that sloes are best left on the trees to mature.
Great idea mashing the fruit with a potato masher. Also like the idea of covering the bottle with a cereal box to keep out the light.
I’d be interested to hear about your pulp squeezing experiment.
Glad you are enjoying the site.
Fiona
We have just picked about 12kg of wild damsons round the corner from where we live. There are absolutely tons of them, free for the taking. If you live nearby or are passing through, the place is here http://pininthemap.com/pp81ad2a8c5a3088bf6Â (I hope hyperlinks work on this site). Get there quick before they all go!
Hi David,
I am widly envious.
Thanks for being a prince and leaving the location of your haul!
What a fantastic site! Planted an orchard of mixed fruit trees the year before last and have this year had a bumper crop of plums of all sorts (best ones were the Early Rivers). Today I’ve picked 5lbs of Shropshire Prune Damsons and am going to make damson gin tomorrow (already got some wild damson vodka on the go). All that’s left in the orchard is shed loads of apples from existing trees (any offers on what do with buckets of Bramleys?) and a couple of quinces from the new trees. A word of warning – step away from the idea of quince vodka – tried it last year with a friend’s quinces and it was awful. Agree about blackberry vodka too – left it too long last year and it was like drinking a tree. Thanks again.
hi there been picking damsons today to make damson gin,has enyone else found that this year they are rather small,as have been the plums i have had this year.there has also been no wild cherrys this year anyone got any idea why cheers glenn.
Hi Jane,
Lovely to meet someone who has planted an orchard (albeit the introduction was on line). Glad there was a good harvest this year. Our apple jelly is good (swank) This year I am trying it with herbs and the leaves of scented geraniums.
Thanks for the tip about quince vodka. Glad that you agree about leaving blackberry vodka too long.
Thanks for dropping by.
Hi Glenn,
I think diminutive fruit are down to the weather. Not enough sun this year. I have been out foraging in my secret hunting grounds and been really disappointed too.
Hi,super web site!
We have an abundance of wild damsons in our hedgerows and i’ll be picking some today following your recipes.
I’ve also found some sloes and was planning to leave them until after the first frost but after reading your advice, they will be harvested today also!
Last year a shooting friend made sloe and blueberry gin which was to die for, so i shall experiment with a version of this too. I’ll let you know the results if i’m still able to stand!!!
Hi Andy,
We are going to experiment with sloes this year and will be posting about the project this weekend.
I’d love to hear how the blueberry and sloe gin turns out.
Pleased that you are enjoying the site.
Hi there
I agree about the bumper damson season, I went to pick my sisters damsons yesterday and ended with far more than I intended to pick so I now have enough for wine, gin making and jam.
I made sloe gin last year but didn’t like it much so will try sloe vodka this year so it would be good to compare notes after Christmas.
Brill website – keep up the good work
Fantastic Web site!
Made some fantastic damson gin last year, but strangely enough our damsons (which are wild but growing in the garden) only come in every other year, so this year we have been encouraged by the lack of damsons to seek out a good source of sloes which we harvested today and will let you know how we get on!
Hi Karen,
I’d be really interested to hear how the sloe vodka works out. Lucky you with all those damsons. We are drinking a 2005 wild damson gin at the moment and it’s pretty good. Glad you are enjoying the site.
Hi Charles,
I’d love to hear how you get on with your sloe gin. Also I’d be interested in taking a peek at your damson gin recipe.
Not a good damson year around here. I may have to drive down to my friends garden in Essex – her garden is heaving with them.
What a brilliant site!
I’d really like to try making apple jelly with scented geranium leaves. What sort of quantity of leaves do you use & at which stage do you add them?
Hi Liz,
Use three or four scented geranium leaves to 1 kilo of apples. Cook them with the apples and remove them before straining through muslin.
I an assuming that your leaves are between 2 to 3 inches across.
Hi
Brilliant website, I am a big sloe gin fan but want to try and find some wild damsons this year for a change. We live in Cornwall, near Newquay – does anyone have any tips on finding them? We only seem to have sloes round here…
Hi Marianne,
Why not try asking elderly local people about the damsons? They would have picked them as children and would have good local knowledge.
Hope that you find some!
Hi A friend told me to make damson brandy, after bottling the gin,then add brandy and sugar to the fruit you used for the gin, and treat same as for damson gin, bottle after 3 months use fruit for pies or with icecream.I havent tryed yet? she gave me a drop of damsonbrandy to try ,very yummy!..
Hello Anne,
This sounds like lethal stuff! I will definitely try this. We do the same with sherry http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=104
Hi,I have just washed 18lbs of wild damsons,(picked from a friends farm) slit them with a knife put them in a brewing bucket and added 3.2 litres of cheap gin and 1.5lbs sugar. I will test several times before Christmas to see if it needs more sugar!! We don’t drink whiskey but had a bottle sitting in the cupboard, having leftover elderberries (from wine making)I mashed them and added the whiskey and some sugar, after about 3 months it was strained and bottled but tasted strange. It sat in the cupboard for ages until we bottled the last of the 2006 damson gin (passing it through a wine press to get every last drop!!!), when I had an idea, put the elderberry whiskey I was going to throw away) on the damsons
and see what happens, 2 weeks later it’s tasting better.
Hi, forgot to say I mix some of the damson with mince meat when making mince pies at Christmas, even my husband eats them and he doesn,t like mince pies! When we bottled the first batch of damson gin we added a couple more bottles of gin and sugar to the fruit, second batch tastes just as good.
Hi Isabel,
Thanks so much for your recipe and tips. I am amazed that the damson retreads produced a good new batch of damson gin. I will try this rather than making damson sherry.
Great idea, putting the damsons in Christmas mince pies.
Thanks for all the tips. Round here (Preston, Lancs) there’s loads of damsons on all the trees I know, so I expect a big harvest this year!
Has anyone got any tips for the damsons once they’ve been in the gin?
Hi all at the cottage….found your site by accident and am very impressed…we have spent an hour up on the ridgeway here in wiltshire today picking sloes..nearly lost the walking stick twice..them bows do whip dont they?got enough sloes for 2 n half gallons of sloe gin..i got the idea from our club steward who puts 5 gallons down each year..today i was given a large glass of damson gin that had an instant effect on me..like a pre-med in a hospital!So its damson hunting next week.the web page i linked is simply my strange hobby of recording old derelict buildings..sorry if you thought it was a site for wine/gin recipes
regards from stuart
Lovely to find this site!
There are so many sloes on the hedgerows here (worc’s) that the branches are actually breaking…I’ve been picking them by the carrier full! All set now to make sloe gin/vodka (Neil…turn your soaked damsons into jelly/jam!) and I’m going to do a crabapple and sloe gin jelly.
I’ve aleady made lots of jelly – crabapple and lavender, crabapple and ginger, and crabapple redcurrant and mixed spice. I’m going to do an apple and mint after I’ve finished the apple, blackberry and rhubarb.
The hedgerows are loaded with hawthorne berries and there are tonnes of rowan berries…so they’ll be next for jelly.
The squirrels beat me to the nuts this year, but I’m looking forward to the sweet chesnuts.
Oh, I use barley sugar in my sloe gin (or various brown sugars to get different colours) Woody:)
Hi Neil,
One year I used up the damsons that were left over from the damson gin by de- stoning them and adding them to the christmas cake, i seem to remember the cake that year went quick.
Hi Neil,
It’s such a great feeling when I find a decent harvest of damsons. Lucky you. There are some good tips on the reuse of damsons in the comments on this post and also on the comments on this year’s sloe gin post http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=442
Woody has some ideas below!
Hi Stuart,
I love the idea of your club steward putting down five gallons of sloe gin each year. I bet he has some marvellous vintages from years gone by!
What an interesting hobby, recording old derelict buildings.
Hi Woody,
Thanks for dropping by and leaving so many interesting and taste bud zinging ideas for hedgerow jellies and liqueurs. If it wasn’t dark already, I’d be out with my bonnet and basket immediately.
Interesting to hear that you use barley and brown sugar in your slow gin. I must give it a whirl. I’ve only used white sugar to date.
Hi Doro,
That’s a great use for gin drenched damsons – tipsy Christmas cake. Thanks for making a comment.
hi all
hoping to try to make traditional cider! what do I need apart from apples (sweet) lol
very easy please.. we’ve been told put them through juicer, pour into demi john, air lock leave….. can this be true????
thank you
Have to say yet again, what a great site.
I have 3 large damson trees in my garden and several wild damsons at the bottom (where people can collect their own). I have been making damson jam since we moved in 15 years ago and end up giving most of it away. I’ve also tried damson wine, damson cheese, spicy damson preserve, pickled damsons and damsons in syrup. But this year it just has to be damson gin, then later, damson chocolate, mince pies and christmas cake. Oh yum yum just can’t wait.
Hi makemineadouble,
I can relate to your moniker.
Cider needs yeast. I haven’t made it yet but thought I might try this year. I have found this recipe on the net that sounds good and will give you the general idea
http://www.brewerylane.com/cider_recipe.html
John Seymour has some good advice and a recipe for cider in his book The Complete Guide to Self Sufficiency, which we review here http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=131
Hi Lady Hawk Mansfield,
So pleased that you are enjoying the site.
I am going to make our mince pies and Christmas cake with the same secret ingredient this year! The chocolate sound good too.
well I’v checked everywhere I can and think I’m gonna plough on!
juiced apples poured into jar, topped up till all froth gone… leaving now to ferment then when it stops bottle and store…
never tried anything like this before!! I’ll let you know what happens…
next experiment Damson gin! he he (hic)
Hi makemineadouble,
Thanks for the update. I bet that you have great results.
Please drop by to report how it works out. I’m really interested.
Damson gin is great.
Earlier this week I read in the newspapers that Waitrose are selling sloes, at £4.99 for a 1lb punnet, but only in London.
Made me smile.
Ray
Hi Ray,
That means that the thorny hedge at the bottom of my friend’s garden maust be worth at least 2 thousand pounds!
I am going to try the apple with geranium leaves recipe but can you tell me why you need to remove the leaves before straining through the muslin. I can’t think why that would be necessary and it would be difficult to find them in the pulp.
I’ve just made apple and elderberry jelly which I think is great. 3 quarts (6 pints) elderberries, 5lb windfall/crab apples, cinammon stick, rind of two oranges, ~3 pints water; 1lb granulated sugar to every pint juice. Cut apples up, put in pan with berries (including core,pips and skin of apple). Add rest of ingredients; cook to a pulp stirring occasionally; drip through jelly bag/muslin overnight; measure juice, add sugar (warmed), low heat until sugar dissolved then rapid boil until jelly will set when tested which is between 15 and 25 minutes.
Hi Kathy,
I am so sorry; I have made a muddle here. Sometimes we add the scented geranium leaves to the apples when we simmer them to make jelly. It would be impossible to remove them before straining and there would be no point.
Sometimes we add the geranium leaves to the juice during the jelly making process and then these leaves have to be removed prior to pouring the jelly into jars as the cooked leaves would look wilty.
You can set a fresh leaf in the jar of jelly when it is half set (in the jar) and this looks very pretty.
Thank you so much for the recipe for apple and elderberry jelly. It sounds delicious.
Hi I used to make damson and sloe gin 20 or thity years ago to put in my hip flask. A friend of mine used to make raspberry gin which was always my favourite. Thicker damson or sloe gin someone was commenting on was obviously made by adding more sugar. My recipe was bottle of gin, 1lb fruit and 1lb of suger. One year my aunt doubled the already heavy load of sugar and the result was the most amazing sloe liquor. Two glasses and we were on our backs! Fantastic wesite which I shall explore more at a later date.
Hi Charlotte,
Thanks for your recipe ideas. I am going to try adding much more sugar than the recipe above, in the interests of science. Sometimes a glass of delicious , thick sloe gin just hits the spot.
Found this website whilst looking for something else to do with sloes but make gin – what great ideas I have read .. have already made my damson gin and have picked the biggest sloes ever this afternoon!.
Tip for damsons strained out of gin – make a yummy crumble – its the best!
Hi Deb,
Thanks for leaving the tip about the gin soaked damson crumble. Sounds delicious.
Hi i froze some sloe berries last autumn and forgot about them,will they be ok for sloe gin this year? I am unsure how long they can be kept in the deep freeze.
Hi Karen,
I don’t know how long sloes keep in the deep freeze.
The only way to tell if the taste has been adversely affected is to pick a fresh sloe and unfreeze one of your frozen ones. When you taste them you will know immediately if it is worth using the frozen ones this year.
Thats a good idea …will do just that.Will let you know if the frozen ones were any good.Thank you
Hi Karen
Yes, I’d like to hear how they taste after a year in the freezer.
Have just picked 2lb if sloes and put in the freezer having found it difficult to locate burgeoning hedgerows in NE Lancashire. Can advise that prolonged storage in a freezer results in brown and musty tasting berries which I had to threw away scattering them in the local park in the hope that they would eventually germinate and provide a local source of harvesting. For the first time I’m going to try a lower sugar content recipe. The fruit is naturally tart but may not benefit from too high a sugar content after all. Thanks for the tip. I’m off tomorrow to scour the hedgeros again. Our greatest harvest was on an October break in Hereforshire about 4 years ago when we collected 14 lb of the little gems.
Hi Brian
Thanks for leaving a comment. I’d love to hear how your low sugar sloe gin turns out.
Hi all
cider looking brill! frothed up real scarey! but settled down now still full of gas no yeast or locks! gonna give it more time to stop and settle then siphon into clean demi john’s? who knows hey
well I decided there were to many damsons for gin.. so have made wine!!!! 2 gal never done this before!!! soaked and squashed damsons left for two days
… put thro sieve? added yeast and yeast nutrients? sugar water some pectin acid??? cant remember! topped up to gallon put air locks in…MY GOD….FROTH EVERYWHERE BY MORNING LOST LOADS OF LIQUID did’nt know wether to top up or not??? so did? ha ha all calmed down now smells ok well sort of like port? wotyathink? x
Hi makemineadouble,
Great to hear about the cider. I am going to have a go at making some soon.
This happened to me with damson wine. It went crazy. I now freeze some juice for topping up. Since then it hasn’t happened again! Topping up was the right thing to do as you need liquid up to the start of the neck of the demi john.
Thanks for the update.
Awesome website – just over a month ago I found your recipe for Damson gin, which as soon as I had purchased a cheap demi john from the charity shop (and sterilized)began to make. Today I tasted the gin for the first time (as you advised) and am stunned at how nice the Gin tastes already.Cant wait till Christmas when the gin will have fermented more. Would love to hear more about seasonal recipes and furthur fruit liquors that you make. Thanks so much for opening my eyes to fruit liquor
)
Hi clairebear,
Glad that you are enjoying the site. Serious damson gin makers use demi johns!
We make loads of fruit gin, here are a few links. They can also be made with vodka too.
Green bullace gin recipe
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=473.
Fermented sloe gin recipe
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=471
More sloe gin experiments and recipes
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=442
Blackberry whisky recipe
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=422
Raspberry vodka recipe
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=362
Seville orange gin recipe
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=193
Kumquat liqueur recipe
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=182
Italian sweet chestnut liqueur recipe
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=119
Lemon gin recipe. This is superb
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=112
Sloe sherry recipe
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=104
Grapes in grape liqueur recipe
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=100
Chilli sherry recipe
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=98
Raspberry gin recipe
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=53
Bullace vodka recipe
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=41
Wild damson gin and sloe gin recipe (you have seen this one)
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=37
Happy glugging.
All our recipes are seasonal. Generally we post on food (ish) every other day.
Just tripped on this site and it’s just what I’m after. Where can you buy almond essence?
Hi Des,
You can buy almond essence in the baking section of Waitrose. I am sure other supermarkets must stock it too.
Greetings from the Royal Manor and Island of Portland:…..
Just a quick update on what I have been up too of late. In the end I managed to lay down 4 gallons of Sloe Gin but still have another 15lb of sloes bagged and frozen in the frezzer.
This weekend just gone, we did the first of two pressings and managed to produce 18 galls of apple juice which even as I write is in the first stages of becoming cider. We plan to pick the last of the trees in two weeks time thus avoiding the problems we had last year of having 50 galls of cider needing attention at all the different stages at once.
Have to say though, that although we have bumper crops down here in Dorset, on most of the trees we use, the apples are not of A1 quality with very thin skins and a tendancy to go off very quickly. Sugar levels though, are very high indeed and we have put aside at least 4 galls for personal consumption as apple juice lol.
Going to try making a strawberry vodka…!! anybody got a good recipe.?
Regards Christof
Hi Christof,
Pleased things are moving in Portland. You are clearly picking for the county!
I’m really interested in your cider recipe
We are finally planning to jump in at the weekend.
There is a recipe for strawberry vodka/gin in the comments above from Irene.
I went out looking for sloes today as we have just had our first frosts, I thought I had waited too long as the birds seem to have taken the ones I had my eye on. However, I found just one tree that had huge fruits on about the size of a black grape but spherical. I am sure these must be sloes, they are bitter but edible unlike the ones I tried before the frost. Is there a chance they could be something else?
Hi Muriel,
Sloes are round, even big ones. Your fruit could be wild damsons like the ones in the bowl in the photo above. They are spherical and the size of a small olive or grape.
If you go to the contact us page you can email me for my email address and send me a photo of the fruit if you have one. If I don’t know, I can put the photo on the site as there is bound to be someone who would know out there.
CIDER- I’ve been making it since 8 yo! All you need is apples- crush/pass through traditional “scratcher”, press, ferment, bottle. Natural yeasts on surface of fruit start it all off. Ensure good cleanliness and bottle carefully to avoid too much sediment. I use a hydrometer but my father never has- leaves it fermenting slowly outside in cider house until Feb!! Be very selective/clean on bottle choice- reject anything with “fousty” smell as you’ll never clean it. If making perry no need to crush fruit, but leave to mature for 1 yr- intestinal effects!
LEFT OVER GINNED DAMSONS- lovely with greek yogurt!!
LEFT OVER GINNED SLOES- add cheap cider to bottle- drink next day, then add more cider- drink next week!! Gets most of alcohol out and is lovely.
Hi Douglas,
Thanks so much for your cider recipe and tips. Great that your father has a “cider house”!
Thanks for your ideas on using ginned damsons and sloes. Brilliant.
we are in our second year of sloe gin and sloe vodka making. last year we made two batches of sloe gin ( i must have posted in another section!)and one batch of vodka. the vodka is very smooth and quite potent. we left the sloes in for about 6months. the second batch of sloe gin has nearly all gone (boo) and was divine, again, left for about 6months. we have just made some lemon gin and raspbery gin, now the long wait begins…….
ps, fantastic website!!!!
Hi Sam,
Great to hear how your sloe gin and vodka compared. The raspberry gin is to die for and the lemon is worth the wait.
Before Danny lived here I found a five year old bottle of lemon gin in the larder. It had dropped behind a redundant machine. It was exquisite. Five years in the making, its days were numbered.
i am having to be restrained by my husband! since finding your website i am champing at the bit to make many various recipes! the most interesting of which ( apart from all the gin related ones!) are the apple,date and onion chutney and the belgian pears. thats the one i REALLY want to do, but alas, no jars!
back to the sloes. we used asda gin last year and this, has anyone experimented with other brands? it’s reasonably priced and not too bad in taste, and the bottles are a good size and shape too!
off tomorrow to pick more sloes from a friends field, as we’ve picked the ones from our garden!
happy gin making!!!(hic)
Hi Sam,
It’s worth looking in Asda/Tesco etc at this time of year as they often have jars on offer. Also charity shops. We made a big investment in Le Parfait jars a few years ago and they have been a boon. Used over and over again.
I used to use the cheapest gin and have now switched to middle of the range own brand gin. It tastes better to me. It’s worth looking out for offers on these too.
What a great site! Fab tip about the ginned sloes with cider – will definitely try that with our sloes. We enjoy our sloe gin made into sloe gin martinis (you can only drink 1 in a evening).
Really posting to add that quince vodka is a fabulous thing (to disagree with other comments above). We use a recipe from Jane Grigson & the trick is to leave it to mature after bottling for at least a year. The flavour becomes honeyed with a hint of vanilla – the colour also changes from something a bit to close to urine sample to a marvellous amber. It really is fantastic stuff.
Hi Ali,
I am delighted that you are enjoying the site.
I’m going to try the tipsy sloes with cider (hopefully our own).
Thank you so much for the information about quince vodka! Just sitting beside a large bowl of quinces and I was wondering about their future. A clutch are now earmarked for quince vodka.
Hi, anybody got any tips on what to use for filtering and decanting the sloe gin?
I’ve just tried using:
muslin (soaked up to much of the Precious Liquid)
coffee filter (just doesn’t let the PL flow)
But, boy, doesn’t the product taste good!
Ray
____________
There are some good product and preserving jars at http://www.lakeland.co.uk/product.aspx/!11087_11086
Hi Ray,
Have you tried teasing apart some kitchen roll? You can cut it so as not to have a large PL soak up area.
Yes it is delicious.
Thanks for the tip about Lakeland.
add the ginned sloes to a good medium farmhouse cider…then add a good shot of gin…this is called SLIDER…it is probably the most potent drink there is …but tastes lovely!!!!
Hi Peter,
Thanks so much for dropping by and leaving this tip.
Christmas might never be the same again!
Hi,
I’ve just been reading through the above which has given me a lot of ideas for next year! We’ve made some sloe brandy for the first time this year (it’s the first time we’ve been near a supply of sloes and we decided we preferred brandy to gin). We’ve drained off the sloes and added them to the conmpost heap – and obviously I wish we hadn’t now after reading some of the comments above – and the liquid tastes great but is still cloudy and doesn’t look as though it will clear on its own. Does that matter or should we try to strain it some more?
Sue
Hi Sue
The cloudiness is sediment so another straining would help. One of our reader suggested that cotton handkies are perfect for this (put them in cold water in a large saucepan immediately after straining with a dollop of washing powder and bring them slowly to simmering point. When the water gets to boiling point allow to get quite cold before rinsing them out in cold water. All stains should magically disappear. If you put them in the washing machine the stains will set).
If you put the bottle in the shed for a few days the cold will help clarify the liquid and the sediment will drop the the bottom of the bottle. The sloe brandy can then be decanted.
Hi, just sat here sampling sips from a mini-bottle of my moms damson gin, given as a festive gift. And was thinking how its made, and found this site.
Apart from instantly recalling my boyhood walks within natures patry, it reminds me of childhood christmas, with ginger wine, raspberry ‘tonic’ and damson gin.
I love the ideas for ‘recycling’ the used fruits after straining, from chocs to pies, and cakes to trifles. Has anyone tried to use the damsons in some form of stuffing (a bit like prune/herb stuffing I should think). Might help keep stuffing nice and moist, or sausage making(also meatloaf/haggis/puddings.etc), can you just imagine- ‘Wild boar/venison and damson’ sausages.
Perhaps suggestions are just a little late for this years festives but hey ho, so glad to have found this site, well done everyone. keep sipping!
Hi GV
Using the sloes in stuffing is a great idea! Thanks for the tip.
Glad that you are enjoying the site! Thanks for leaving a comment.
hi fiona.
i would really appreciate a sound recipe for slider as last years attempts ended up as home made bombs! our sloes are quite happy under the stairs still seeping away, but the time will come soon when i’ll have to hoick them out and recycle them…….
sam
Hi Sam
I’m afraid I don’t have a recipe for slider. I know that it has been mentioned on several of our sloe posts (in the comments section). Perhaps you could get around the exploding problem by using plastic bottles?
hi fiona,
we made such a lot of it last year that we didn’t have enough glass bottles so we put the rest into plastic ones. the bottles went very rigid and that was a bit frightening too!! maybe i should just stick to the sherry idea….. shame though as good slider does sound delicious
sam
Hi Sam
I’ve just done a search of all the comments on the blog and found this recipe from Peter
“add the ginned sloes to a good medium farmhouse cider…then add a good shot of gin…this is called SLIDER…it is probably the most potent drink there is …but tastes lovely!!!!”
And from Douglas
“LEFT OVER GINNED SLOES- add cheap cider to bottle- drink next day, then add more cider- drink next week!! Gets most of alcohol out and is lovely.”
I read your original cider comment too. I think that it was a mistake to add the sugar as this would start to ferment and cause explosions.
Hi there
Thought you’d like to know that last Autumn grand experiment – FESTIVE SPIRIT (damson, elderberry, blackberry gin) was a stellar success! Sadly, now all gone – I’m making a lot more next year…
I put a little orange peel, a small cinnamon stick and a single whole clove (head removed) in the 75cl bottle and otherwise followed the standard damson gin proportions for fruit/sugar/gin.
By early December it tasted heady and spiccy, if a little medicinal. By New Year it had mellowed considerably and was utterly stunning… I removed the fruit (excellent addition to a big apple crumble) after 3 months to avoid bitterness – thanks for that tip.
The colour is an intensely rich purple, I suppose from the elderberries. I made a tiny bit of elderberry gin, which was again a deep purple colour, and tasted very distinctive – it divided opinion, but I’m a fan. Maybe vodka for elderberries though?
Hi Pete
Thanks so much for this update on your festive spirit. I must try this combination next year!
We made a lot of sloe vodka this year and it has a freshness that the sloe gin just doesn’t have. In fact I had to move it to the barn as it was disappearing rapidly as it is so moreish. So elderberry vodka might be a great bet next autumn.
hi great site,made sloe gin with dried sloes,could nt find any fresh.the drink is fab but has like a black smokey strand and cloundy,i have strained lots of times,and the black seems to stay,but i loose more gin by straining,useing cheese cloths.please help.thanks
Hi Joi
Fine cotton hadkerchiefs are good for straining. Cheese cloths could be a bit coarse.
You need to put the cloudy bottle somewhere cool (garage or shed). After a couple of weeks the leys should settle at the bottom of a bottle you can then decant the clear grog.
Hope that this helps
thanks i have also tried muslin,i will try that,thanks
Hello Joi
I’d love to hear how the brew turns out!
hi fn cant wait to find out myself.how i decoverd sloe gin.i was walking my dog and met doggy friends,iwas so cold i said im going home,dont go till you have had a drink[coffee i thought]we walk towards the kiosh,low and behold they were selling a shot of sloe gin and chew stick for dog.i tried it and was warmed through in a tick.i couldnt have any more because i was driving.i went and brought some from supermarket.a few weeks later i met my doggy friends again,they told me,they loved it so much they both continued to drink,by all acounts they rang there husbands to collect them at 11 pm at night they were so drunk and had to leave ther cars in park.from then on we seem to be hooked. joi
Hi Joi
Drinking sloe gin in the day is lethal! Great story, thanks for sharing.
What a brill site, and really great quality comments!
I wonder if anyone can help me. I’m getting married this September and would really like to give miniature bottles of home-made liqueur to guests as favours (will prob use as name places with guests’ names on the label, or something of the sort!) I’ve got a big bottle of damson vodka brewing from last September, but I think the quantity is only going to be enough for the around half the number of guests. Could anyone suggest a fairly risk-free recipe that i could put together now and which would be ready to drink in 6 months’ time? My real problem is choosing what fruit to use given that it’s all out of season. My first idea to have damson vodka for the boys and raspberry gin for the girls…does anyone have any other suggestions, and also any tips on how i could keep the quality good when fruits are out of season and the maturing time is fairly short….? Many thanks for your help & congratulations again on such a lovely website. Ella
Hi Ella
You caught me at a busy weekend, sorry not have got back to you immediately!
Great to hear that you are getting married. What a wonderful idea to use mini fruit gin bottles as place holders.
I think that raspberry gin/vodka is the best fruit liqueur that we make http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=53. Much better than damson or sloe and tastes sublime. You can get raspberries all year round. So I’d go for that. Yes you do have the air miles question and the fact that they are not just plucked from the canes but you don’t have time on your side. Most UK soft fruits are ready late summer and then it will be too late.
Fruit gins need at least three months to mature before they are drinkable. Raspberry gin is perfect within six months.
Ding! I’ve suddenly though of Rhubarb gin/vodka. Apparently this is amazing. Rhubarb’s available now from UK suppliers. We don’t have a recipe but there must be one out there somewhere. Don’t leave the fruit in the liquor for longer than 3 months.
I do hope that this helps you!
I have read many of the posts on your site but time wasn’t on my side so apologies if I missed any reference to what I am about to ask now.
I notice that some of you have tried Elderberry Gin it sounds great however what about the Elderflowers themselves. Elderflower Champagne is wonderful and so easy to make – I am wondering if anyone has tried infusing the flowers with Gin? Or anything else for that matter!!
Hi Dori
I haven’t tried infusing gin with elderflowers. It seems a promising idea and I might give it a go.
I make elderflower cordial, http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=340 which is excellent and delicious elderflower and lime jellies http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=328
I have been told to look at this site and i am so excited , its wonderful , i will be back after i raid the cocktail cabinet Cheers Elizabeth
Fab site !
I’ve successfully made sloe gin previously & had more sloes than gin so made a batch of sloe whisky instead which was amazing !
Last year I had a go at Blackberry Brandy – fantastic for a ‘kir royale/ champagne cocktail’ style drink. Yum.
Just been to my local co-op & strawberries were reduced to only 50p a punnet so snapped up the entire 6 punnets. I was originally thinking strawberry jam, but realising how easy the blackberry brandy was, I’m going to have a go at Strawberry vodka instead, along the lines of the raspberry gin. (I even live about a mile from the Notts Ikea so I’m off there tomorrow for jars too !)
Can’t wait for autumn, last year, after spending years trying to hunt down local sloes, I discovered that the hedges around our local playing fields are virtually ALL sloe – with seemingly no-one else out gathering !
Hello Helen
Sloe whisky and blackberry brandy sound delicious.
Hope that the strawberry vodka is successful.
Lucky you, finding a good supply of sloes!
Thanks for leaving a comment it’s always good to hear about forays into the world of fruit liqueurs.
Whilst “doing” the loathed ironing I watched Ready Steady Cook this week and a guest produced sloe jelly! In my quest for recipes came across this website – excellent. whilst dog walking this morning I picked a bag of blackberries and during my wanderings walked by all the renowned good cropping sloe bushes – there were no sloes at all NOR do our wild damson trees have any damsons. Bumper crop 2007 and bumper bumper crop of everything in 2006. Has anyone else noticed this? My spirits will have to be blackberried.
I think I discovered two damson trees growing along a farm fence near my home. The fruit is currently about an inch long, oval, not near ripe, still a pale green. The leaf of the tree/bush looks a bit like a cherry tree leave, very small sawtooth edges and is about 3″ long and 1.5″ wide. From this can anyone tell me if this sounds like a damson? A neighbor had a bush when I was a kid but that’s the only time I’ve seen one growing.
Like many of your contributors I’ve had success with sloes using both gin and vodka but I didn’t see any mention of kea plums these are just as good.
I’ve just been given 1200gms of redcurrants with a lot more available if I want them. I don’t fancy redcurrant jelly…has anyone sucessfully ginned them?
Hello Rosalind
It all seems to depend on late sharp frosts. Try looking in a well protected spot and you may find some.
Hi Sarah
I’m afraid that I can’t help you here. Have you tried consulting Richard Mabey’s food for free?
Hi Marshall
I’ve not heard of kea plums, do they grow in the UK?
Red currants can be used in gin or vodka and make an excellent liqueur. Use our raspberry gin recipe for fruit/sugar ratio.
Kea plums are I believe named after the village of that name near Truro. They are found throughout West Cornwall. My young nephew Dan has a tree in his garden and since his parents don’t want them I get the lot each year.
Thanks for the info on Redcurrant gin.
Fantastic site only just found it, thank you. I shall be making damson gin and other damson recipes as we have a huge well loaded damson tree on our allotment plot.
I’m really looking forward to trying out the end results.
Really great to be able to read comments from other users.
MAde this last year and it was gorgeous. Came out really smooth!
Hi there,
I’ve been putting away (hiding really!) a litre of sloe gin each year for a while now. A sudden thought- how long will it kep for – dark bottles kept in celar?
Very poor crop of sloes here in Northern Germany – will be looking for damsons & trying out your recipe. Many thanks
Hi Marshall
Thanks for the information on Kea plums!
Hello Hil
You are so lucky to have found a damson tree.
Hello Victoria
Great news. I’m sipping some 2007 damson vodka as I type this!
Hi Steve
If You remove the sloes it will keep for years. Keeping the sloes in the bottles can spoilthe freshness of the grog and give it a musty taste.
Good idea to use dark bottles as the grog will keep a good red colour.
Damson gin/vodka is well worth making and can be glugged far sooner. Hic.
here are a few ideas….. and I was also hoping to gain some advice.
1. Slider – when you have taken the gin out of the bottle, fill the bottle (sloes still in) with Scrumpy Jack or any string cider…makes a great warm or cold drink, think ‘punch’
2.Try rasberry vodka… similar principle but be cautious (if you are in a rush put the whole lot in a blender, wizz a few times until all broken up, pop in the cellar and shake every day for 2 weeks… strain until clear)
And in return… all I ask for is a guide to make Damson Whiskey, having tried it on a local shoot I am keen to have a go myself? Thought?
Have been unable to find any sloes this year in Norfolk, Northumberland (both places whilst on hols), or in usial sights here in N Yorkshire.
Have seen earlier comments about elderberry gin, has anyone tried it successfully? If so, please let me have the recipe. Happy slurping!
Carol
Hi,
Just wondering,has anyone else think there is a shortage of sloes this year, i’ve benn to check my usual favorite bushes and they are all quite bare – anybody else having the same problems?
Is it the weather?
Hi all,
I was lucky to get damsons from a neighbor’s tree here in North Carolina, USA where damson plum preserves are a local tradition.
I’ve made some damson preserve and now would like to try damson gin. Unfortunately I froze the damsons before thinking to wash them. I think they’ll burst if I pour water on them while still frozen; and they may just disintegrate if I thaw them first, then try to wash the.
I feel so silly, but at the time I was in a hurry to pop them into the freezer before I went away on vacation!
Does anyone have suggestions for how to get the plums washed? Or should I just go “dirty” and let the alcohol provide the sanitation? Hate to think of the little buggies and spiders that might end up in the finished product. Little extra protein, I guess.
Hi Betsy
This question is impossible to answer.
And there may have been no bugs on the fruit before you froze it.
When the fruit unfreezes there will be lots of juice. You could filter this through muslin. The freezing will have killed any bugs.
It’s always best to filter your damson gin through muslin after six months, when it’s ready to drink.
I was wondering if anyone could tell me where I can get some damsons from in the Oldham area of Lancashire? our local market says he wont ‘be having any this year because of a bad crop… I can’t believe it! I make a lovely Damson jam and have none in reserve.
Thankyou for reading
Monique
I live in Somerset. Can anybody tell me where I can get some Damsons. There just doesn’t seem to be any about. I always make Damson Gin and my friends will have withdrawal symptoms if they don’t get their usual bottle at Christmas!
This is the first year that i have made damson and sloe gin, your site is very informative. Thankyou very much and i will let you know how they both turn out. The sloe gin is for a Christmans present for the father in law so i hope it turns out well. Just need to find a nice bottle to put it in. Thanks again.
I’ve seen it mentioned a few times so I’ve started two bottles of elderberry vodka this evening. I went and picked loads of them this afternoon. It would have been elderberry gin except the local store had run out!
I’ll let you know how it goes after Christmas.
Thanks, fn, for your reply. The filtering will take care of it, looks like. Well, I’ll try it and see what happens!
I have been looking for sloes this year and have found none. I usualy pick 3-4lbs off 8 – 10 bushes every year but not a berry this year.
I have managedto pick 2lds of wild damsons,but these are low yealding thisyear.
I have botteled two lots with gin,hope it’s as good as sloes?????
HI Rob
How disappointing. It’s the same around here. Plums and sloes are thin on the bush but apples are weighing down the branches of our trees. It has to be a cider year!
If you find any more, try using vodka as your spirit it makes for a cleaner, sharper tasting grog.
Hi
I was wondering if you could give me some advice. I have some sloes in the freezer I picked this time last year (I found loads and didn’t make sloe gin with all of them), and was hoping to use them to make some sloe gin this year. Do you think they will still be ok to use?
many thanks,
Abbie
thanks for info great site
What a brilliant site. Just came across it. We have loads of sloe and elderberry bushes near us(Co. Fermanagh)Made Hedgerow Jelly last year and it went down a storm. Cant wait to try sloe gin as well as elderberry gin. Have a crab apple tree(Malus) in my garden which I use for Crab Apple jelly. Could you make a Crab Apple gin the same way? Cheers Paul
Why, after filtering my Damson Gin through coffee filter papers (twice) is there STILL a cloud of sediment in the bottom? Any ideas please?
Heather, it’s normal for the sediment to remailn, but you’ve done what you can with the filter paper. Once the bottle has been upright for a day, you can pour off the liqueur without it tainting your precious nectar. Just don’t be too picky – like a good wine, a bit of sediment is the sign of a true homemade quality product!
I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who has found it difficult to find damsons this year. Have looked all over my usual spots and local markets. I found some advertised as “dasmuns” on Borough Market in London at £15 a kilo (!) but held back. Waitrose were selling some Tiptree commercial damsons (£2.99 for 500g) , but the season is so short, these have now disappeared as well. Shame. I managed to put a lb or so into my previously mentioned FESTIVE SPIRIT (damson, elderberry, blackberry, cinnamon, clove, allspice, gin) but otherwise, no damson cheese or vodka this year I’m afraid. Will have to hope the sloe harvest comes to the rescue!
Oh, and one more thing… a friend recommended RHUBARB VODKA to me this April (usual proportions, cut stems to c5cm, bit more sugar maybe to taste). I had a go and after 2 months it was a great success – the essence of early summer in a shot glass! It has gone down very well with various “I don’t really like vodka” types and has just run out. No need to freeze or strain the final product – just put it in the fridge and pour carefully. Top stuff. I’ll be making it every year – unlike damsons, there’s never a shortage of local rhubarb.
Dave, I’d like to know how the elderberry vodka comes out – I fear I’ve left it too late here. The gin is unusual, but rather good.
I put elderberries in apple/blackberry crumbles or desserts (wait until they’re hanging down under the weight of the juice) and this year added my 2007 damson vodka fruit to the mix, with excellent results. Thoroughly recommended – although not fist date fodder, as a spitoon is required for the pips…
Hi ChrisB
Thanks for your tips!
I’m sorry that I missed your comment. I would imagine that damson whisky would be on the same wavelength ad blackberry whisky. We have a recipe here http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=422
Hi Carol
Sorry, I don’t have a recipe. But why not use the sloe gin one. Both are very bitter fruit.
Hello Nigel
I think that it’s the weather. Warm and early blossom and then sharp frosts destroyed this so very little fruit.
Hello Monique and Judy
It’s a bad damson year. Perhaps next year will be better.
It’s a great year for apples though. I might have a go at making apple vodka.
Hi Simon
Hope that the grog turns out well!
Hello David
I’d be really interested to hear how your elderberry vodka turns out.
Hi Abbie
The sloe will be OK but will not taste as strong so you’d need to use more. Personally I’d double the quantity.
Hi Eddie
Thanks!
Hello Paul
Yes the crab apples should work well, I think. Vodka might be better for them as it’s cleaner tasting – just a thought.
Hi Heather
I wouldn’t worry about a little sediment. Stand the bottle at a slight tilt for three days and decant like port.
Hi Pete
Thanks for your advice.
Shame about the damsons.
Love the idea of elderberries in the crumble!
I still have rhubarb in the garden!!
Been on the forage and this year as Nigel stated there is a distinct lack of sloes. However there a good crop of rosehips and haws so does anyone know a use for these fruits. Elderberries in my part of the world are slow in ripening so am still hoping to give the elderberry gin/vodka a go
I have a recipe for rosehip jelly on this site. You could also try roship schnapps http://www.danish-schnapps-recipes.com/rose-hip.html oe even haw schnapps.
Hi,
Just found this great site, thanks for all the info.
I have just taken over a rough plot of land on the cliff behind our cottage, and despite all the bad weather and high winds off the sea, I have just managed to pick 1lb of sloes. Looks like I am a couple of weeks too late, as many had shrivelled. I am looking forward to making my first batch!
Re elderberry gin could I use 2ltr plastic milk bottles to store the mash? also could fn clarify the proportion of fuit to sugar as you state that elderberries are quite bitter and would you use almond essence with it as well.
We have a large stand of wild Damson trees on an old dirt road on our little island in the San Juan archipelago in Washington State, US. They are at peak ripeness right now. We picked almost 3 gallons yesterday, and there are thousands of the little blue-black beauties still clinging in the upper branches. I made jam and fruit leather with them yesterday, but thanks to this lovely site we will continue picking- and ginning!
Cheers!
Went to find sloes today and picked 1 that was left on a blackthorn bush! In desperation I’ve turned to blueberries which I have mixed with gin and sugar. Has anyone got any experience of using blueberries?
I want to make some sloe gin as one of the presents for my boyfriend this Christmas, based on a ’scrumping’ theme! Trouble is, I live in London and – being a City girl – I’m afraid I’ll pick something poisonous (even presuming I manage to find some in the first place!). Question is, a) where should I look in London to try to find some or b) is there a farmers market someone knows of where I could (dare I say it??) BUY some?? Thanks
Annie
You could try Borough Market, or Marylebone Farmer’s Market every Sunday from 10am. It’s possible they will sell you sloes… mind you, it’s been a poor year.
Failing that, make him something like a fig vodka – buy ripe figs, cut in four, cook ‘em slowly in a low oven for an hour, cool and add to vodka (whatever bottle you choose, it should be a 1/4 to 1/3 full of fruit). No sugar in this one.
After 3-4 weeks, you’ll have a pale green/yellow liquid, heady with the taste of fig, excellent chilled and served alongside some crumbly blue cheese…
Hooray,
at last i managed to find some sloes,i now have two litres of sloe gin and am about to try sloe whisky very shortly!
Saturday just gone I thought I’d try my luck at finding the elusive Sloe. Me and my 2 boys went walking in the fields that I could see lots of Hawthornes. Bingo, mixed amongst them I found a Sloe Bush … with no Sloes on
a few yards further on BINGO, Sloes, more sloes and even more sloes …. I walked a differant way back and hit the “Motherload” as my boys have coined it. I’m going back this weekend as I only had a hat to fill up with about a pound of Sloes.
2 jars on the go already and already a veruy deep ruby red!
Phil.
Well after another bumper pick of sloes this weekend I thought I’d share my recipie. I still have 3lb of sloes in the freezer to play with. It’ scosting me a fortune in Gin so I may sell some to friends etc and see how it goes down.
Gin Bottle
½ lb Sloes
1/2 litre Gin
3oz Sugar
2 Tablespoons of Thyme Honey
Jar One (1.5 ltr Le Parfait jar)
1lb Sloes
¾ qtrs Litre Gin
5oz Sugar
1 Vanilla pod
Jar Two (1.5 ltr Le Parfait jar)
1lb Sloes
¾ qtr Litre Gin
5oz Sugar
If you wanna caht feel free to mail me at philhaddon@sky.com
Hi. All recipes say to prick the sloes with a fork before submerging in gin and sugar. Old folklore here in Ulster say to prick with the sharp thorn of the blackthorn itself. Apparently using a metal fork affects the flavour of the fruit!! personally I use a wooden cocktail stick…just to be on the safe side!!
I used your recipes last year to make damson gin and plun gin. They both taste fantastic the damson gin has the most splendid colour and tastes faintly of almond.
I made 3 litres and wish I’d made more……so starting early this with ………….strawberry vodka
Keep up the good work
Came across your site looking for a recipe for mirabelle jam while waiting for my apricot jam to boil…didn’t find the recipe, but lots of other good stuff.
Regarding sloe gin, I introduced my (Hungarian) partner’s father to this about 5 years ago. We found sloes in abundance near his home in the south of Hungary. He was sceptical until I cracked the product at age 3 months, then enthusiastic. Little bit less so about all the faffing involved – picking by hand, stabbing the little bighters with a needle. Hungarian ingenuity was required, and duly applied. The process now goes like this: 1) Go out with tractor, trailer and chainsaw. 2) Use the latter to strim off a bunch of branches bearing ample sloes, load into the trailer and take home. 3) Spread a large tarpaulin, dump the sloe branches and beat the bejasus out of them with a stick (I usually get to do this), removing branches and debris to leave the sloes. 4) Dump the sloes, leaves, bits of branch and odd finger fragment (Blackthorn is sharp!) into a large tub, fill up, and skim off the debris. The sloes come out by the kilo….and the pricking is done in the same tub, by hitting them fairly gently with a wire brush, flick of the wrist, next please…
Oh, and the alcoholic content is provided by neither gin nor vodka, but his own plum “palinka” – fruit brandy, distilled at the (official) village still (Hungary is civilised). 54% going in, which I think is about 110 proof. Add 1/2 kilo of local honey to a 5 liter jar half filled with sloes, top up and wait…I figure what comes out is somewhere between 40 and 45%, so 70 to 80 proof. The sloe on top of the plum base tastes very nice, I lie here befuddled to tell you…Actually, adding the sloe turns the palinka from a “knock-it-back” shot to a sipping drink, which is nice.
We have Morello Cherry Brandy and Raspberry liqueur on the go each year, same plum brandy base (a bottle of the Morello between 8 people can go in 30 minutes, and the “waste” cherries make the most lethal pie). This year we are also trying Mulberies, which so far seems promising – great colour and interesting smell, anyway. Tried redcurrants last year -waste of time, much better used in Jelly.
That is a brilliant account, Andy. You are obviously a fully paid up member of SFTA* like ourselves. Back home in West Cork in the 50s and 60s, poteen making was a vital income stream for the hill farmers. The constant threat of police raids added tremendous excitement to the whole business.
Well done to Hungary for licensing official stills in villages. That’s a cracking idea.
*SFTA: See Fruit, Think Alcohol
The deal with the stills is that anybody can buy, fairly cheaply, a licence that allows them to distill up to 50 liters of spirits at one of these “official” distilleries. You have to pay for the fuel (previously you brought the wood to fire the still, now they are mainly gas fired), plus a small charge for the use, related to how much you distill.
The stills typically hold 2-3,000 liters, and the liquor is run through twice, with water added in after the first pass to bring it back to the original volume.
Most of what is produced is what they call “mixed fruit” palinka. Which is to say, you take all the windfalls and all the spoiled / wormed / scabbed fruit of whatever sort you have in your garden and throw it into plastic drums (50 or 100 liters) throughout the growing season. When the drum is about full, you top up with water and cover. They sit in the open, warmed by the sun and the fruit ferments.
In the late autumn, you load up your drums and take them to the still. The average “take” is about 7 – 8 liters per 100 liter input, so 6-700 liters of spoiled fruit will take you to the limit of your licence.
Making a single fruit palinka is more complicated, because you have to have enough fruit to fill the still. My partner’s father has a fair number of plum trees, and in a good year he can easily exceed 2,000 liters. So he gets a licence for himself, his wife, his daughter (my partner), his son, and me…and he’s good for 250 liters. In a bad year he might team with somebody else who has plums.
And the plums are picked from the ground, not the tree. You want them when they’re really ripe, for the maximum sugar content. So the deal is to go out every morning and evening with a bucket or two, and fill up with what has dropped.
The other approach is to have your own still…not legal, but not rare either. I’m on the look out for one, as we have lots of cherry trees and I could probably fill 2 or 3 drums each year with what is spoiled or I simply can’t use. Nothing like enough to take to the “official” still and get back cherry palinka, I would only get the “mixed fruit” and for me it’s not drinkable. However, if I had my own still, 10 – 15 liters of cherry palinka would be worth the effort. I’ve been given a little of this “private” produce on occasion, and it’s wonderful – the best commercial product is nothing close.
Hi, I have been busy making various sloe/blackberry/redcurrant gin and vodka for the first time last autumn, with mixed results. I’m keen to make rhubarb gin or vodka but I’m unable to find a recipe. I saw a comment from Pete last year but one key point was missing – it may sound stupid but do you cook the rhubarb first to soften it or use it as it comes. Any experience with this?
Roger
Don’t bother cooking the rhubarb.
I did select the most pink/red bits to give a good colour to the product, but otherwise, it’s just a matter of chopping it up and mixing in the sugar and vodka. Enjoy after 2-3 months.
Hello Roger
I never cook the fruit for liqueurs I think that it would dull the flavour.
Hello Pete
Thanks for this! I still have some rhubarb in the garden so I think that I’ll give your recipe a go.
Many thanks Pete. I will let you know how it goes.
I’ve just been give about 1kg of sloes I HOPE to make sloe gin! But, having just read that they should still be on the bush until after the first frost! Can I still use them? They are a greenish purple colour, so perhaps not ripe and no good!
HELP!!!!
Hi Glenda
If you leave the sloes spread out on a plate for a few days they will slowly ripen (we do this with blueberries).
Then pop them in the freezer for a day to replicate a hard frost. Then you are ready to go.
Hi everyone glad I’ve come across this site. I have been thinking about doing flavoured spirits for a while, can anyone tell me if all the recipes work using white rum, also someone told me I could put the fruit in the freezer instead of pricking
Great recipes thanks. We’ve been making sloe gin for a few years now with sloes collected from the nearby park, albeit with a few strange looks from passers by. We never prick the sloes (too fiddly) but open freeze them and pack them in 1lb bags ready for use. We always add a few drops of almond essence as per most receipes so it was interesting to note that other people do as well. Hopefully this year will be a better year for sloes as last year was a disaster.
We’ve picked quite a few wild damsons in the park so we will definitely be trying out your damson gin recipe and if we’re still standing will report back.
Thanks.
I’ve got a couple of damson trees, and am proposing to make some damson gin this year, if i remember to buy the gin this weekend, and can find a suitable bottle or two. What I’ve not seen covered on this website is how damson gin is best drunk – neat or with soda or tonic, chilled or at room or cellar temperature? I suppose I can always experiment!
Hi all, im quite new to the site and must say very impressed. I have enjoyed both Sloe and Damson Gin on many a cold days shooting but shamefully despite living in an area surrounded by wild fruits I have never made it, often prefering to buy it. (there is no excuse)
But tonight I have took the plunge and have just finished preparing some damson gin, I have used a sterilised 5 litre Demijohn and despite having a wide neck some of the fruits did break up as I pushed them through (not many thankfully).
Will the broken/split fruit have any detrimental effect to the grog as it matures as I am concerned I have just buggered 3 litres of Gin?
In answer to the last blog from Rich on 20th August, the damsons we picked I’ve taken the stones out with the intention of making damson jam but have changed my mind and am now going to make damson gin. I’m not sure if breaking up the fruit will affect the finished product but I’m going to have a go and will report back – we only get cheapy gin from Tesco or Sainsburys if we’re experimenting with a new recipe to see how it turns out so not to waste too much money. We’ll be interested to hear whether other people take the stones out first.
We also make blackberry and a raspberry liqueur if anyone’s interested in a recipe. Also a very drinkable chocolate vodka cream liqueur made from Aero and vodka which tastes like chocolate Baileys if you can imagine that.
Hi,
This is my first year making sloe gin, as i have
only just found the bushes, i have made blackberry gin and i was wandering how to store it as it tastes better cold. I have found leaving it in the frezzer is fine as the jar does not crack because of the sugar and gin.
Has anyone ever used honey for liquors instead of sugar, if so how was it and how did you work out ratios?
Hi again,
Also what happens if you pick Sloes too early? And how do they feel when they are ripe, i have only just been picking the softest ones. if i do pick them too ripe should i leave them out on a tray for a few days then freeze?
Apparently we have got an early crop this year.
I got a load of damsons from a tree round the corner from me, and they are now sitting steeping in gin under the kitchen sink. Today we walked the dog down to Pevensey Castle (where William landed and prepped himself ready to conquer)and found tree after tree brim full of sloes that I previously didn’t know were there. And blackberries. Not on the same shrubs obviously
Even the dog had a productive day, catching a rabbit and toying with it until I shouted at him, turning his proud ‘Look what I’ve got, Dad!’ expression into a ‘I didn’t mean it, Dad!’ look as the rabbit shot off back into the undergrowth.
So tomorrow it’s back to the shebeen (Tesco) for more spirit, then into the frost simulator (deep freeze) for the sloes, and by the weekend there’ll be a few more jars under the sink. Far nicer to look at than bleach and floor cleaner!
In the past I’ve used too much sugar, making a syrupy liqueur rather than a basic spirit, but that’s easily remedied by drinking it long with lemonade. Hic!
Just stumbled across this website as I looked for recipes for damsons. I followed a recipe for jam (not from this site) which said to cook the damsons whole and the stones would rise to the top as the fruit broke down. It lied. Just spent hours squidging jammy damsons to remove the stones. I’ve decided to use the rest of them to make a liqueur instead… Sounds yummy!
T’rific website!
Marie, I always make damson jam like this and the stones bobble around on the surface. You can see them as it is getting hotter and lift them out with a slotted spoon.It would take ages to remove them like this though. I never remove all of them becasue I think it takes the charm of it actually being damson jam away.
If you want to have jam without stones I would try removing them by cutting across the fruit twist to open the flesh then pinch the stone out of the middle. It is a tiresome job and I suppose you could always use a jelly bag or as you say, make something else like a liqueur instead.
Hi all, found this site after I made my first ever batch of sloe gin. Bit concerned as I didn’t wait til first frost or freeze them and I’m not sure all of mine were ‘fat and juicy’. As the cheapest gin I could find was just over £11 a litre and I used 2 litres I am hoping all will turn out fine! I think I may pick some more sloes in a few weeks and bottle up another batch trying the freeze method. It’s really interesting to see all the fruit gins/vodka’s its possible to make. May have to give something else a try too. Anyone know what I can do with pears? I thought cider but I don’t have a press and they are so expensive to buy. Any suggestions most appreciated Thanks.
Hi Amanda,
you don’t need a press….
1. Wash the pears, cut out any rotten bits (leave the bruises, they’re just pre-juiced)
2. Grate the fruit into a clean bucket using a coarse grater – peel, pips, stalks and all.
3. When the bucket is about 1/3rd full, stop and fill to 2/3rds with tap water.
4. Wizz with a wand blender until the pear is in bits about lentil size (note, if your blender dies, put it in the fridge for 1/2 hour and resume – they get a bit hot with continuous use)
5. Fill the bucket to about 80% with tap water. Cover with a cloth, secured with a bungee (keeps out the fruit flies)
6. Continue until you run out of pears / buckets / patience.
(you can transfer the buckets to a larger container – I use 60 liter plastic drums with lids. But the whole thing works perfectly well with buckets…)
7. Stir twice daily with a stick for about a week. After one – two days, the mashed fruit will start to come to the surf
[...] damsons, brambles and sloes can be made into delectable jams, jellies, chutneys, even home made alcoholic drinks – fair reward for the enterprising [...]
[...] damsons, brambles and sloes can be made into delectable jams, jellies, chutneys, even home made alcoholic drinks – fair reward for the enterprising [...]
Hi Andy, Thanks for the advice for using pears. I have managed to get some plastic wine buckets with lids and some demijohns so I am raring to give it all a go now! Can you please just fill me in after the fruit rises to the surface please….got it up to there.
Hi Marilyn, please could I have the recipe for the chocolate vodka using Aero? Being a Baileys addict my mouth was watering just reading your description of it! I did try to find a choc vodka recipe and interestingly found one you make by putting the bottle in the dishwasher cycle. Sounded about as easy as you can get! Have to say the description of it didn’t sound quite as good as yours. Maybe for the sake of fairness I should make and try both!
Hi Amanda,
3rd time lucky…
7. (cont) …surface and form a cap, which you need to stir back into the liquid. When the cap stops forming on the top…
8. Sieve the liquid into a clean container and add sugar. How much depends on the original pears; if sour/hard, 1 kilo per 5 liters of liquid. If sweet/soft, 1 kilo per 7 liters. Also add the juice of 1 lemon for each 2 liters liquid (note, fresh not bottled lemon juice – the bottled has preservative which will kill off the yeast in the liquid). Stir well to dissolve and cover again. A vigourous fermentation should start within 1 – 2 days.
9. Depending on the temperature, this will take 10 – 20 days to ferment out to dry. Once it has stopped, taste the juice. If it is dry, it’s done. If still sweet, you have a “stuck” ferment. You can restart by adding yeast nutrient, available from any “brew it yourself” supplier.
10. Once it’s done, strain the liquid into a clean, closable plastic container using a close woven cloth(I use 20 liter water jerrycans, which have a useful tap on the bottom).
Tips for keeping: sterilise the final container with sterilising solution (from brew supplier). Apply crushed campden tablets (from brew supplier) to the Perry according to the instructions to inhibit any secondary fermentations. When you crack a big container, empty it competely into smaller containers – like wine, the perry doesn’t like contact with lots of air.
This also works well with apples – in fact, that’s the original recipe. Cider purists will no doubt object, but if you don’t have a scratter and a press, and only a limited supply of fruit, this works and the taste of the fruit certainly comes through.
Empirical testing tells me this comes out about 8% alcohol or better…so careful if you are drinking pints. It cuts well with soda / fizzy water. Good luck!
Newsflash…. Gordons Gin for £9.99 at Somerfields right now…
The other day we were in Sainsburys getting more supplies to use with our bag of sloes when I made mention of buying something or other. My wife said in reply, “No, we can’t afford it, we’ve spent nearly £40 on gin this week!” much to the consternation of a passing elderly lady who nearly crashed into the baked beans!
I was trying wild cherries soaked in amaretto at a friend’s house and I would like to try to make a similar dish using damsons and brandy. does anyone have a good recipe? Also does anyone know a good place to find sloes in west central Scotland?
Thanks for all that info Andy. I have a couple of cooking apple trees as well as my pear tree but the apples usually get ’scrumped’ by friends and family or end up in crumbles. The pears never seem to get used as they are the hard type. No one in my little clan is keen on them and invariably they end up dropping to the ground, rotting and then get binned. Such a waste, (although I do have a resident blackbird who gets sloshed on the rotting pears each year so I guess she appreciates our lack of interest!)
I really appreciate all your advice, thanks once again.
I’ve been lucky enough to find masses of wild black plums: bullace rather than damson, I thought, but decided to check. A couple of mouseclicks later, and I find that the Wikipedia article on “Damson Gin” is a clear copy paste from Cottage Smallholder, but without any credits!! I think it was the “leave it until you can resist no longer” that tipped me off to it being Fiona’s words!!
Anyway, thought you might like to know that you are the gold standard on damson gin
)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damson_gin
Re Newsflash
Gordons is £12 a litre in Morrisons at the moment. Not sure for how long though…
FWIW, the last bottle of gin I bought to drink was Blackfriars export strength (43%) from Sainsburys. This is made by Greenalls and was on offer at about £14, which I thought was pretty fair. It is (was) very nice…
Hello Derek
I’m sure that you could use rum but I’d cut down on the sugar by about a third.
Yes you can freeze the berries rather than pricking.
Hi Marilyn
It looks as if it’s going to be a bonza year for sloes! Do try the damson gin/vodka – it’s superb.
Hi Peter
Experimentation is advised. I like my raspberry gin chilled but my sloe gin/vodka at room temperature. Sloe vodka and soda is a real stiffener too. Hic.
Hi Rich
The split damsons will not harm the grog.
Do try and find some sloes – homemade sloe gin is much better than the commercially made stuff.
Hi Marilyn
You are safe using destoned damsons. I’d love to see your recipes for blackberry, raspberry and chocolate cream liqueurs. The more the merrier.
Hello Mary
During the first six months, before siphoning it off keep it somewhere fairly dark and cool. If you are going to freeze it do this just before you are going to drink it as it will stop the maturing process. The longer that you leave it to mature the better that it will become.
Re picking sloes. If they are soft they are ripe. Freeze immediately or they will go bad, like any fruit.
Hi Johnny H T
Sorry I haven’t tried this so can’t advise.
Hi Trev
Loved this comment – especially the part about the dog Isn’t it great finding new foraging and hunting grounds…
Thanks also for the tip about using up sloe gin that is too sweet. I made a litre of undrinkable sloe vodka that’s sitting in the barn. Have added lemonade to my shopping list.
Hi Marie
Welcome to the world of damson liqueur.
Hi Trish
With wild plums and damsons (much smaller and with dolls sized stones) I often use Delia’s trick of simmering them in a little water and removing the stones when they are cold before making the jam.
Hi Amanda
Don’t worry. Just keep shaking the bottles for a bit longer and the skins will break down. Re pears – thanks for asking this question. I can’t wait to try Andy’s perry.
Hi Clare
Thanks for the tip off – that’s a bit naughty of Wikipedia. Not very impressed with the photo either – plastic bottle?!
Great to see you back.
Hi James P
Oh that’s a great deal for Gordons. Thanks for the tip.
We picked 23lb of damsons this year and have made damson cheese (using the pulp ie stew and push through a sieve) and am trying damson gin/vodka for the first time. We are also using the sieved damsons for ice-cream sauce and to make ice-cream. It makes great ripple for bought vanilla ice-cream if you haven’t got an ice-cream maker too.
Having found a bumper crop of sloes locally, I think I’ve found some wild damsons, but I wish I could be sure. The fruit seems a slightly brighter colour, and the trees didn’t seem to fight back when being picked (i.e. not so thorny) but I may just be getting better at avoiding them! Comparing the leaves is inconclusive, as there is as much variation on a tree as there is between them, and the fruit sizes are pretty variable, too. Some of what I took to be damsons were as big as large grapes, but we have some pretty big sloes, too, and of course that’s what they may all be. They taste quite bitter and the flesh is a bit ‘gritty’.
Apologies if this is answered elsewhere on your site..
[...] Already we’ve had a good picking of sloes- 3kg - enough for my sloe cheese and a bit of sloe gin and plenty of blackberries for pies, crumbles and bramble jelly…yum, yum. Blackberries a [...]
I meant to say, having now been motivated to look for Gin, that Sainsburys standard own-label is currently £11.18 for a litre. They do a 1.5 litre bottle, too, but that isn’t any cheaper, although the extra-large bottle might be useful!
They do an even cheaper ‘basic’ gin, but you do have to wonder what gets left out. Having encountered ‘dehydrated beer’ on a label recently (!) I’m getting a bit wary of what I buy in supermarkets!
I’ve just got back from a morning picking damsons in a friends garden and I really can’t wait to get started turning them into some of your amazing recipes…my problem being where to start. Your web site is brilliant and fun and I’m so glad I’ve found it. Feel like a whole new world has just opened up to me…!!Thanks!
With regard to cheap gin, the only advice I can offer is that it should be genuine ‘grain spirit’ – in another words, own label is fine, but avoid the ultra cheap stuff, which may result in a slightly more bitter, ‘plain’ tasting product after your months of patience. You get what you pay for of course.
Organic lovers will find some extra expense, but if you’re using wild damsons/sloes and organic sugar (the unrefined, lighter coloured variety), you’ll get a very natural product. You can always make a bit less and make it last… I usually make a small organic batch and amongst my more substantial main effort.
I would also encourage glass bottles over plastic, for taste as well anything else.
Try Greens Organic Juniper Gin. this is about £10 for a Ltr bottle in your regular supermarket, and is gorgeous (even though some people won’t drink it coz its not a popular brand). It also works well with plums. Plum Gin. Um!!!!!!! About 40% proof and very delicious!!!!!
Hi Sarah F
Wow, you lucky thing. I found loads of wild cherry plums but only a handful of wild damsons (now soaking in gin in the barn). Thanks for all your tips, love the idea of damson ripple ice cream.
Hello James P
Wild damsons are a dark purplish blueish colour, they are more like a tiny plum. Sloes are rounder. I’m thinking of putting up a post tomorrow with photographs of the hedgerow fruit around here.
Hi James P
I’ve never thought of reading the label! I’ll check them out next time.
Hello Granny Mo
Great that you’re enjoying the site. Thanks so much for leaving a comment.
Hi Pete
I totally agree – never use plastic bottles for liqueurs as the plastic will leach eventually.
Thanks for the tips on choosing spirits!
Hi Jane
I must check that out £10.00 for organic gin is a bargain. Thanks so much.
Fiona – I should have added that the ‘dehydrated beer’ wasn’t anything to do with gin (thankfully), it just amused me that such a thing existed as an ingredient (in beer battered chips, as it happens).
I’m not sure that gin bottles own up to any particular recipe, as their distillers like to keep that sort of thing secret – I just suspect that the really cheap end of the market hasn’t been anywhere near a juniper bush, for instance. Mind you, there’s no way of knowing if the more expensive stuff has, either!
I think we’ve found enough actual damsons to make some gin – is freezing them recommended, or should we just prick the skins? I should add that have a few sloes in the freezer, but their skins still seem to be intact!
Hello James P
That’s a relief!
Re the damsons. No need to freeze or pierce the skins. I just put them in the bottle, add the sugar and shake every morning and evening for a few days.
Thanks, Fiona. That saves me some work. Sorry to keep coming with the questions, but is there a reason for the damson recipe using more sugar than the sloe one? I would have expected it to be the other way round. Just curious – I’m not casting doubt on your experience!
Hi James P
I hadn’t noticed that before! These recipes are the ammounts I’ve used in the past.
This year we have just the one bottle of damson gin on the go and I added very little sugar – 3 tbsp as I can always add more later. This year I want something slightly tarter.
Hello
I have heaps of sloes this year, much better than the last few years but I think we may have found either some damson or bullace trees in our hedges this year. I’m just not sure how to identify them. Our sloes are quite big this year – some as big as grapes – or are these damsons? The other trees we found have plum-like fruit (not round like sloe berries), blueish purple with a bloom on them, about the size and shape of a small purple plum. The flesh is green and tastes sweetish. Would these be bullaces or damsons?
Hello
I’ve got 6lb of damsons that need something doing with them within the next 24 hrs and a litre and a half of gin…..but I’ve only plastic wide necked containers. Would it be ok to start off my damson gin in the plastic containers while waiting for glass jars to arrive? If so, how long could it be left in plastic do you think?
Thanks!
Hi Marianne
This article on identifying hedgerow fruit might help http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=3753
Hi Sarah
Never use plastic bottles. You’d be best making the damson gin in a large non reactive saucepan or covered mixing bowl.
I’ve used big Le Parfait jars in the past too.
Hello
After making sloe gin over the past few years I have just discovered your recipie, which adds almond essence. I can’t wait to try the end results as it sounds as though it will be delicious. How on earth am I going to stop myself sampling it until it is ready?!!
I would also like to make damson jam this year – do you have a fool-proof recipe for this. Reading various recipes has confused me regarding the quantity of sugar to use and whether or not I should add water.
I love this site, by the way. I have only recently discovered it and already it is one of my firm favourites.
Hi Iris
The only way I can resist sampling the fruit liqueurs is to keep them in the barn, well away from temptation.
We have a good jam recipe here which works for damsons. Use the second one and once you’ve let the sugar dissolve taste the liquid and adjust the sugar if necessary.
Good that you are enjoying the site.
Ok…..I’ve found a massive crystal vase…..my damson gin will have to live in there for the meantime!!
“crystal vase”
I hope it’s got a lid. You don’t want all that lovely (and expensive) alcohol evaporating…
(Clingfilm would probably suffice.)
I have just been reading about adding a small teaspoon of almond essence to my sloe gin. I have already bottled my gin….about 2 weeks ago. Am I too late to add some? Should I wait til its ‘brewed’ for a few months then add it? Sorry, this is all new to me….I can only get better! I hope!
Hi Sarah
Perfect. But as james P says cover it with clingfilm and I’d add foil. Don’t leave it too long as it will gradually evaporate.
Hi James P
Thanks for dropping by
Hello Amanda
I’d suggest 2-3 drops since I made a sort of revolting disel by adding too much almond oil.
Hi guys and gals, loving the website.
Am picking damsons on my gran’s farm this weekend and hope to try the damson gin and vodka production. I think the Christmas prezzie idea is genius and can’t wait to get started. If made in a large container, can the finished article then be strained into wine bottles.
Hi Collie
Yes the grog can be strained into wine bottles if you can bear to give it away.
Wine is available in 1/3 size bottles, I believe..
has everyone picked their sloes this year? traditionally i wait for the first frosts, but this year they look ready now and some have even started to shrivel. oh the dilemma!!!!
Pick away quick! They are very early this year.
If you want to replicate the effect of the first frost, put them in the freezer and use them frozen.
If you wait they will all have dropped off the trees which happened to us last year.
Hi James
That would be a good idea!
Hi Sam
I agree with Geraldine, pick them now before they start to rot.
Hi Geraldine
Thanks for the advice.
hi marianne i am fairly sure you have found wild plums as we have anice lot this year in norfolk.Also plenty of sloes and damsons.
Does anyone have a recipe for Cherry Brandy?
hellone, can anyone tell me, is it ok to use raspberries with gin or vodka, any help would be much appreciated, thx
))))
Hi Kate
Raymond has left a recipe (for cherry brandy) on the raspberry gin post
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/raspberry-gin-vodka-recipe-53
Hi Pete
Raspberries make the Queen of vodka and gin. See here
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=53
Hello,
Just made my first batch of Sloe Gin. Thanks for the inspiration.
Anyone know a good recipe using spiders…? There seem to be a lot of brightly coloured ones this year. Only joking of course – everyone knows to use them as a kebab, with peanut satay.
After suffering sloe-less for the last couple of years, my husband and I stumbled across a bush in our local nature reserve. We’re thrilled and in the process of making our batch today. Never heard of the almond essence before so we’re going to try that this year.
We’ve already made 3 x l.5l jars of damson gin, though sadly we had to buy the damsons.
Roll on Christmas!!
Emma and Andrew
Hi Pete
We grow our own raspberries and make raspberry gin and vodka every year with
great results.
This is our recipe:
To each 1 lb raspberries add 12 oz granulated sugar and a 75 cl bottle of
either gin or vodka
Place all the ingredients in a demijohn or jar and seal securely. Leave in
a dark place for 3 months, shaking the jar every day for the first month,
then occasionally. Strain the liqueur through muslin then bottle.
We make it in a demijohn so you can make up quite large quantities at a
time.
It’s great with lemonade or tonic. Enjoy.
PS If you can get hold of a copy we always use “Good Housekeeping Complete
Book of Home Preserving” which has some great liqueur, booze, jam and
chutney recipes.
what a wonderful thread! Last year I picked elderberries and made cordial, but it spoiled after a month – guess the seal wasn’t good enough on the bottle. This year I’m going to have a go at elderberry gin, after finding trees laden with fruit around Bucks. The impression I’ve got it is some gin, some sugar and some fruit will do the trick, so here goes!
Those looking for large sealable glass jars but (like me) too mean to pay high prices for those with fancy tops might consider a trip to Lidl, where they sell pickled gherkins in 1.5 litre jars that are just right for the recipes at the top of this page.
These cost £1.19 and include a substantial helping of gherkins that you can transfer to something less exotic, like an ice-cream tub or some Tupperware. I do recommend cleaning the lid thoughly, though…
Hi Simon
Spiders love living in our cottage but as yet haven’t discovered the sloe gin!
Luckily for them we haven’t developed any spider (or fly) recipes yet.
Hi Emma
That was a stroke of luck!
We found a teeny wild damson tree with just enough fruit for one bottle of damson gin.
Hello Marilyn
Thank you so much for leaving this recipe. Much appreciated.
Hello DoubleHelpings
Hope that it works out well for you.
Hi James P
Great tip. Thank you.
Bye the way bicarbonate of soda is great for getting rid of smells on lids. Just add a little water and wipe over. Leave for a few seconds and rinse off with cold water.
Thanks, Fiona. I’ll try that.
WRT the spiders mentioned earlier, a lady I spoke to this morning said (quite seriously) that she was going to collect conkers to spread around the place to ward them off. I quite like spiders, so have no reason to try, but I suppose it might work. It shouldn’t be difficult to tell if chestnut trees are free from webs on a dewy morning…
Johnny H-T
My Aunt bought me a bottle of BRUADAR,
a liqueur of sloes, honey and Whisky
Wish I had an aunt like that! Is that an Eastern European concoction? A friend of ours who travels that part of the world sometimes brings back miniatures of weird liqueurs, but most of them taste like cough mixture…
Try 1 lb (pound) sloes, 1/2 lb honey, I bottle Whisky.
Not a top price Malt–Asda, Tesco, Aldi.
Put all in kilner jar and shake it for a few weeks.
Leave to settle-don’t fret over any haze/residue.
Strain through funnel lined with muslin.
Type BRUADAR into search engine
Thank you Dai – that sounds worth a try! It’s Scottish, I see…
thx marilyn for the recipe for raspberry gin, can’t wait to try it, slurppppppppp hic, lol
Just followed your recipe for sloe gin. It seems I stumbled on a pot of gold with this website. It’s great to see something that’s got a bit of real life imprinted around the edges rather than just a random page on the net somewhere. Thanks!
Hi Adam
Hope that you like the sloe gin when the time comes.
Great that you are enjoying the site.
I made some damson gin years and years ago, and although some of it was consumed (it was fabulous), there was a lot and some is still left at the back of a shelf in my larder (out of sight, out of mind). It doesn’t say much for the state of my larder where things can hide for long, but it’s a tiny room really and a repository for everything. There’s all sorts hiding in there. But discovering this site made me go to dig the remembered bottles out. They don’t look too terribly healthy though. It’s strong alcohol, so it shouldn’t have gone off as such, even if it is sludgy from the fruit that is still in there. It can be filtered, if it still tastes good, to be made to look better, that isn’t my concern. But I am a bit worried that the stones have in there all this time. I am remembering the French liqueur that was banned long ago (I can’t recall the name), based on apricots(?), that was giving people arsenic poisoning. Does anyone know any proper guidelines in this regard.
I am talking of this old damson gin being upwards of 15 years old. Is it actually safe to drink, or not?
WHat a brilliant site I live in Hampshire and have just picked a huge batch of sloes there are millions here ! I used to make wine out of loads of things but I ran out of places to put the demijohns -sometiimes I had up to 50 gallons on the go so got rid of all the gear so I would not be tempted and stick to sloe gin and vodka now ! By the way sloe wine is lovely and oak leaf wine !
I concur with the brilliant site bit!
But where in Hampshire are you talking about? It might be near me. And although I have my own supply of wild damsons (I think), I would really like to see the forms of sloes and similar to compare with mine. I have been doing a bit of peering at hedgerows while driving by, but that is somewhat limited by the necessity to stay on the road safely (lol). And in that limited investigation I have seen lots of wild plums but not sloes. Being steered in a general direction would be much appreciated.
A place called Bishops Waltham in between Southampton and Winchester we have the moors and many public footpaths – a lovely area !
Hi everyone, all my booze is stewing beautifully and I can’t wait to try it! can you tell me is it possible to add more gin etc to demijohn a month after I put it in. Will it effect the taste? Do I need to add more fruit too? Thanks for any tips.
Also i’d like to try Bruadar but I don’t like wiskey, can you taste it once it’s made?
Hi Joanne
Apricot kernels were a big thing during the Roman Empire for killing off irritating enemies but you need an awful lot of them. Sloe stones are basically plum stones and as far as I know are safe – I have drunk twenty year old sloe gin – with stones in and survived.
It might be an idea to research this further for total peace of mind.
Hi Sandy
I’d love to try sloe wine and oak leaf wine sounds tempting too.
We have six year old fruit wine slowly maturing in the barn. Blackberry is particularly good.
Hello Jano
I sometimes do this and it works fine.
I have never made Bruador so can’t help on that front.
Damn, not concentrating just bought bourbon whiskey for Bruador, does it matter??
Jano
Alyss has a recipe for bourbon ginger in the comments on this post
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/superb-sloe-vodka-recipe-518?
Thank you for the input about the 20 year old sloe gin that has still had stones in it, Fn. I am indeed glad you survived the experience (lol). And apart from the other issue, it would be really interesting to know if it was that much better that either younger brews (not really a brew, but can’t think of better word) or other old brews that have been matured at length after the fruit has been filtered off. It would be interesting to know what the rule of thumb is generally thought to be in terms of how long it is best to leave the fruit in, and/or the extent to which it matters.
But re the stones issue, all stone fruit will share ssome of the same characteristics. So if apricots are problematic because of the cyanide (I put arsenic before, I meant cyanide), then other stones will also have it, albeit not necessarily to anything like the same extent. It is only Apricots, I think, that are really notorious for it, so I presume they are the worst. I just don’t know how much relatively is in other stones and to what extent leaching is a potential problem over a very long period. And I will investigate.
But Sandy, I am indeed local. Bishops Waltham is only a few miles up the road. And while I don’t really need to collect any, I would like to see what there is there to compare it to what I have growing at home. Not that definition necessarily really matters, but I am still confused as to what is sloe, as opposed to wild damson, as opposed to black bullace, as opposed to what may be really a spectrum of related similars. The only ones I have really looked at in detail are the ones I have. So I would really appreciate your advice as to where to find the others. Much as I have been to BW occasionally (such a sweet place), I have no idea where the moors are that you mention (they sound wonderful!). I have never (disgracefully) even visited the abbey ruins. So it will be a pleasure to explore anyway. Presupposing that you are alright with telling me where they are, though, don’t if you’re uncomfortable, is there a way of sending you my email, rather than publishing the detail generally? ..Jo
just correcting myself, albeit unrelated to topic. It’s palace ruins at Bishops Waltham, not abbey ruins.
Hi Joanne if you go on http://www.gov.uk/hampshirenow you will be able to get directions to the moors by typing in walks in Bishops Waltham , I think you can get a map too . The sloes are like damsons but smaller and are in the hedgerows but the spikes on the branches are leathel ! there are loada of footpaths here and most of them have sloes growing near them thou it is getting a bit late in the year now as a lot have been picked . If you put your email adress on I will willingly send you sloe wine and oak leaf wine recipes and directions from Palace ruins !
Hi Sandy and Joanne
I have forwarded Joanne’s email address to Sandy so that she doesn’t get inundated by spam.
BTW if you go onto the new forum you can email members privately – nwhich could be handy if wasn’t around.
Thank you Fn. Much appreciated!
Sandy, I would really appreciate directions to specific spots that you know are good. I don’t care at all that there aren’t collectable quantities as long as I may still be able to see and sample specimens of fruit, relative to growth patterns and spines, to compare with mine. On the other hand, since you are familiar with what is there, if you think it is so late that the fruit will either be too past it or non-existent, then tell me and I will take your advice and just wait on next year if I have to. But I would be curious to know, at least, if they are all apparently one basic consistent population, or whether they vary from tree/bush to tree. And also whether the fruit is sweet enough to eat as they are or too sour for that.
And although I am not likely to make them any time very soon, I would really like to have your recipes for the sloe wine and oak leaf wine (which I hadn’t come across before) on record.
Thanks…Jo
Hello Jano.
It is not the type/kind of Whisky.
It is the cost price. The taste changes,as
it does when making slow gin. So why
spend more? My Friends don’t use Gordons.
Bourbon is a bit sweet- use less sugar.
I’m concerned about plastic bottles. I got my original sloe gin recipe from another site before I found this one and it said to use empty lemonade bottles or water bottles and did so. I now read that the plastic could leech and am worried for my 10 litres I’ve got steeping. I have bought spirits in plastic bottles in the past mainly duty free’s on aeroplanes if memory serves. I’ve also found plastic demi johns on some home brew supplies web sites saying that they’re suitable for sloe gin etc. Can anyone put my mind at rest one way or the other please as I dont fancy moving it all into glass bottles before I remove the fruit if I dont have to
Hello Paul
I think that it will take some time for the plastic taste to leech through but it will eventually. Spirits and fruit are different than just spirits.
Some people think that it’s fine to use plastic bottles – but how long are they storing the grog in the bottles for? Personally I never store liqueurs in anything but glass containers. BTW you could ask your local pub to save you some bottles if you decided to go down that route.
Hi…I’m not going to put your mind at rest, because it is just not a risk worth taking if there is any uncertainty at all. But plastic isn’t all the same. Some plastics leach badly, others have been purpose made to theoretically not leach at all. On modern bottles there should be a recycle symbol that actually tells you what the bottle is made from. And that theoretically then lets you know whether any particular bottle is safe for any reuse at all, let alone long term steepage use. As I understand it many bottles are deemed appropriate for single use only, even though it’s possible that that ends up including long term storage before it’s ever sold, which doesn’t make sense. I think it is probably a bit of a minefield.
One would have thought (hoped) that purpose made bottles to carry water (and lemonade) could be assumed to be of a type that is determined to be as certain as possible not to leach. But that isn’t necessarily the case and greater care should surely be taken when you are refilling with alcohol rather than water as well, which is a different kettle of fish, albeit I think heat most problematic.
If you really don’t want to rebottle (I would), and presuming you have lost the lemonade bottle labels by now, I would go and check in a shop the labels of new bottles of the same brand. The recycle symbol can then be looked up online to see what it means. I know there are quite a variety, but I don’t know what individual ones mean, or where to look (I will go to check myself now though), but I am pretty sure it will be easily found on the internet once you know what you should be looking for.
Good luck….Jo
pleased to have found this article today 3/10/09, kitchen full of damsons, sloes, gin, vodka etc. think I must be a member of SFTA but didn’t know it! Good to get tips from you all, my interest has been rekindled since I found some sloe sherry in the back of the cupboard probably 2/3 years old and lovely. I only have a small glass most days and it tastes lovely and smooth and fruity, and I find I sleep better afterwards. I’ve just finished a desert of cooked damsons, light greek yogurt and crumbled meringues, it was heavenly. Found my damsons at Dorchester Market, sold off cheaply to get rid of them. I also live on the lovely Island and Royal Manor of Portland like Christof, where we found plentiful sloes this year, but they were well off the beaten track
Thanks for the feedback on the plastic issue. My bacon has been saved by my neighbour who had a couple of glass demi johns in his shed he was about to sell at a car boot tomorrow. Washed, sanitised and now holding the precious nectar. The only cost to me a bottle when it’s done.
One question has anyone tried germinating the stones when they’ve finished with them?
Sloe Motion, the North Yorkshire family run Sloe Gin producing company, has won a national award for its Sloe Whisky.
Two gold stars were awarded at the Great Taste Awards 2009, on the back of Sloe Motion’s sister liqueur Sloe Gin in 2008, which also won a gold.
Morning all, I may have to move further afield as Im getting some pretty sorry looks from staff at our local lidl store. First gin, then vodka,whiskey, more gin, either that or wear a wig!!
Hi DAI
I must try and get my hands on some of this grog!
Hi Jano
This happened to me the other day when I bought 2 litres of vodka and returned the next day to buy even more!
Hello everyone,
I am part way through trying to brew Pear Perry (recipe from Andy in Budapest much appreciated thanks!) trouble is a friend who has done homemade wine suggested I bottled it into plastic bottles rather than glass. I read with interest the previous conversations about glass/plastic containers and am now a bit confused as to my best course of action! Can any one help please?
I think the main culprit is a chemical called bisphenol-A which is one of these chemicals that many suspect of causing you to grow a second head but industry denies flat out.
Here’s a link I just googled:
http://website.lineone.net/~mwarhurst/bisphenol.html
However I am pretty sure bisphenol-A is not the same chemical that causes the plastic taste – that is something else again.
Frankly I don’t think you’re going to find cheap plastic BPA-free bottles, although I might be wrong. The baby bottles and hiking bottles that are BPA free are easy to find online but demi-johns? Don’t know.
Why did your friend recommend plastic?
Hi have just been rooting through cupboard for large glass jars for sloe vodka and found a litre I made in 1995 ! Result or what ! I presume it is safe to drink I had drained the sloes before I bottled it ! Hic !
Hi Adam, should have explained myself better, sorry. The perry, I assume, will have a fizz to it and my friend said plastic bottles expand to accomodate this. Saying that I did think champagne and the like come in glass bottles!?! Friend suggested glass bottles could cause a few explosive surprises!! I have lots of glass bottles and demi johns but no plastic so actually glass storage would be preferable.
Hi Amanda. Your friend is quite right in that ordinary glass wine bottles might explode under pressure. They’re probably still fine for slightly sparking or petillant, but you would need to be pretty experienced to be very sure what you are going to get. The proper sparkling wines aren’t put in the diffent shape bottle just for the sake of appearance. They are made from much tougher glass. And plastic isn’t so silly in that context. But cider bottles will obviously be appropriate glass too.
An option is to collect them from friends or to go to recycle centres for them. But if you want to use plastic, which you are still going to have to go to trouble to acquire, just make sure you check from the recycle symbol whether they are appropriate.
Some of the confusion around this is that the various recipes that advocate the use of plastic bottles, or that just assume they are fine, are very likely older or are just coming from understanding that predates the greater consciousness of the dangers. But plastic is still terribly useful. You have just got to appreciate that “plastic” is a generic term and that you have to be aware of what type of plastic you are using.
Hi Joanne,
Thanks for clearing that up for me. I do have a friend who loves a drop of cava (and if its on offer, Champagne!) so I will ask for her empties. I have aquired a corking machine but do I need special corks? Cava/Champagne always have the mushroom shaped corks as opposed to the cylindrical wine type. I am a total beginner at this so everyone’s good advice has been gratefully received, thank you all.
Can’t advise on corking champagne bottles, as never done it. But if appearance isn’t important to you, and as you are new to doing it and probably going to be doing some experimenting, it may be worth considering screw caps on bottles that have have previously had sparkling content. But good luck whatever, Amanda.
And thank you Adam, above, for the link. That was a well found article about the Bisphenol. I had no idea that it is in the lacquer used in cans too. You can’t turn around these days without something being a scare. But it is a real scare, this one.
Adam
“one of these chemicals that many suspect of causing you to grow a second head but industry denies flat out”
Ain’t that the truth? Strange how it’s perfectly safe, but is no longer used for baby milk, etc!
My personal bete noir is aspartame (Nutrasweet) which was blocked by the American FDA for years, until Donald Rumsfeld (remember him?) got involved and miraculously it was deemed safe! Now it’s really hard to avoid and appears in most soft drinks and many ‘healthy’ yoghurts…
Sorry to put the cat among the pigeons but I made elderflower champagne this year and bought 14 bottles of grolsch at about £1.49 each. This wasn’t nuch dearer than buying the flip top bottles but had the beer thrown in for free. Well they looked stronger than the flip tops you buy specially and they had held grolsch, but when I went out into the garage which is carpeted (sad I know but so much more homely) there was a strong smell of ‘pub’. One of my grolsch bottled filled with elderflower champagne had exploded! We released the others to take off the pressure and lost 1/2 the contents of each bottle. Admittedly it had a real kick and a few hours later when we re-released the tops they blew hard again but I would suggest keeping an eye on them. Boy we all got merry on very little mind! Sorry this puts you back in the plastic/glass quandary again doesn’t it? Perhaps perry is less potent than elderflower champagne?!?
Thinking about it, the difference may be about whether the secondary fermentation is in the bottle (where the pressure is created), aka champagne, or whether the product is just put in the bottle in the state that you buy it.
Have to say that I am thinking your elderflower champagne maybe shouldn’t have been quite as active as that, though, Karen. That sounded ferocious! And the danger, of course, is that the risk of an explosion is greatest when disturbed, as in being handled. Maybe one should stick to the purpose made champagne bottles (or equivalent) if whatever is to be fermented in the bottle.
Hmmmmm, thank you all for the information. Tis indeed one I need to mull over. Having never made pear perry before I have no idea how fizzy it is or should be so maybe I will wait and see how it turns out before I consider what to bottle it in.
Think I will give the grolsch bottles a miss though Karen! However your elderflower champagne sounds delicious…..would you mind giving me the recipe please?! I made elderflower cordial for the first time this year. Think the champagne may top that though.
Hi Amanda I’m dreadful with recipes but I’m pretty sure I used HFW recipe. If you google ‘elderflower champagne river cottage’ it comes up (I don’t want to infringe copyright). There is a note on the site about various results, amending the amount of sugar and swing top bottles which sounds like it may be to do with the explosions. I must admit I almost certainly put in more flowers than they say and left it in the bucket for a couple of weeks cos I was busy. I think you’re also supposed to drink it within days and I left it in the bottle for a couple of weeks so no wonder my bottles exploded! Next year I shall try to cut back the time in the bucket and drink soon after bottling!
Ha! That sounds like my mind set Karen….more has got to be better, right?!!! Thanks for info, I will check out Mr FW’s site.
Choice of bottles is an interesting issue to the home brewer. Soundest advice is use the same type of bottles that are in use commercially for any given type of “brew”. After all that is proven to be the best. If you want champagne bottles, try asking the local hotel that does weddings and functions. They are often glad to save on dispossal costs if you can be relied on to collect promptly. Plastic champagne corks and the wires to hold them down are readily avialiable from home brew shops – take a look on the net under “home brew mail order”.
I make elderflower champagne using a little less sugar than the recipe. When it has finished and the sediment settled out, I bottle it and add no more than ½ teaspoon of sugar per bottle and cork. The secondary fermentation will then kick in to give a sparkling result – as opposed to pseudo fire extinguisher!
I make sloe gin and have a good supply of sles and blackberries. Last week I was given a litre of spanish brandy. Is sloe brandy or blackberry brandy any good? If so, please does anyone have a recipe?
Regards, Paul S
Hi Paul
Thanks for all your advice.
I’m sorry but I don’t have a recipe for sloe or blacberry brandy. Slo brandy sounds delicious though.
I have slo gin from 2004. Is this going to still be ok?
Hi Julie
Lucky you – it should be fine and better for being matured.
hey just read “has anybody tried germinating the stones when finished” Conjurs up slightly drunken trees leaning slightly” tipsy trees taken into custody.
Hello Raymond
Thanks for that. Your comment had me snickering all day
The item regarding the used stones reminded me that a few years ago we put out the used sloes on the bird table. The squirrels took advantage of them and got mighty tipsy. Not something we repeat.
I haven’t ever used sloes. I have the wild damsons (I think). And the steeped damsons, at least, are wonderful after being dipped in chocolate.
Hi PaulS
Drunk squirrels – I love it
Hi Joanne
I must try that – thanks for the tip.
Hi,im wondering if anyone can give me tips on what to do with chestnuts apart from puree,stuffing we have rather a big bag full of them!
Roast them on a fire!
Hi, thanks for all the interesting articles and recipes. I successfully made damson jam with your recipe last year and am now going to try damson gin. I have bought Le Parfait jars with the clip lid.
Are they as versatile as the Kilner screw tops, or are each suited for a different purpose? (I’m a beginner you see).
Do I sterilise them in the oven, then wait for them to cool before filling?
Do I boil the rubber ring?
Does the jar have to be completely filled to the rim?
If the damsons are frozen does that mean they don’t need piercing with a cocktail stick?
Many thanks. I shall continue to read, learn, do and enjoy.
I see here people are saying its getting a bit late in the year now to pick sloe berries, but seeing as its not frosty yet no one should have picked any sloes yet.
The people that pick them far too early in august and september really do annoy me by ruining the sloe picking at the correct time for everyone else.
Does anyone else know of any sites near Southampton that have sloes left for people actually being patient and waiting for first frost?
Around Bishops waltham there are still some about round most fields but they are on the higher branches as the lower ones have been picked !
Hi Sara
Why not make marron glace?
Hi Adam
I love roasted chestnuts.
Hello Sylvia
I use Kilner and Le Parfait jars. Both are suitable for the same things. But Le Parfait jars come in a much wider range of sizes.
You need to sterilise the jar but let it get cold before adding the damsons, sugar and gin. Yes you boil the rubber ring and you need to fill the jar to the neck. If the damsons are frozen they don’t need pricking.
I’d love to hear how you get on.
Hi Juno
I agree with you – it’s best to leave the sloes until after the first frosts.
Hi Sandy
Thanks for the tip.
Most of the sloes in my part of Lincolnshire have now wizened up and dropped due to the dry weather. There are a few in some field edges where the farmers have irrigated the crop but not many and they’re quite small. It was the same with the blackberries.The best ones were one river and drainage dike banks but a lot have now been ripped up by dredging operations.The blackberries will probably be back next year but the blackthorn have had it. The sloes I got were taken from some trees that had been ripped out on a river bank I was fishing. I froze some and tried using some without. If I can find enough once we’ve had a proper frost (I’ve got my eye on a few on an isolated riverbank ;->) I’ll have comparisons for all the methods people champion.
Further to my post of 8 October, I made sloe brandy using my sloe gin recipe with brandy in place of gin. It proved a bit too sweet so I have added a third more sloes and brandy. Three weeks on the result looks and tastes very promising indeed – even wore warming than sloe gin.
I make my sloe gin in demijohns used for brewing. Each will hold about 3½ bottles of gin with the sloes and sugar. By making in bulk the finished product can be decanted into bottles leaving the sediment behind.
Today’s Daily Telegraph (24 October)contains an article on the celebrity chef Tristan Welch’s use of sloes. There are recipes for sloe gin, venison burgers with sloe gin and onion relish and sloe gin jelly with home made clotted cream. Well worth a look and a taste.
With warmer autumns and winters, the prospect of there being any sloes left on the bushes after frost is increasingly remote. Realistically it is far more reliable is to pick in late September once ripe and freeze them. You can then use at your leisure.
hi ,
made some wild damson gin two months ago using them from the woods were i live, cant wait till xmas eve when i have the first tipple,great recipe and easy,
i know the longer you wait the better it tastes but i think xmas eve will be the longest i can wait til.
I’ve been keeping an eye on a bumper crop of sloes, and now that the leaves have fallen they look as ripe as they’re going to get. Last time I made sloe gin was october 1985 and the bottles are still in the cupboard. I think it might be mature now!
Great site,
Only ment a quick look as I am about to embark on my first attempt at sloe gin,but found myself reading the entire site 3 years!!!! and counting
I have several wild cherry trees in my garden, could I use a similar method to produce cherry brandy rather than letting the blackbirds enjoy the lot.
Hello Paul
Isn’t it great when you find a good source that no one has spotted!
It would be great to hear how you compare frosted sloe gin with frozen sloe gin.
Hi Paul S
Sloe brandy sounds terrific. I made apricot brandy once and the results were so abysmal that I’ve not used brandy with fruit since then. Perhaps I’ll give sloe brandy a go.
Thanks for the tip about Tristan Welsh’s sloe recipes.
Hi Lee
How wise to wait till Christmas Eve. We opened a bottle of redcurrant and raspberry gin to taste it and dropped the bottle aaaargh!
Hi Janice
24 year old sloe gin will take some beating. I’d love to hear how it tastes.
Hello Joy
Great that you are enjoying the site.
Yes you could use cherries to make brandy. I’d cut down the sugar by at least half. You can always add more if necessary.
hi Joy , Ive not made it myself but here is a recipe for cherry brandy using Morrelo cherries so I guess you could use more sugar !
1 lb of Morello cherries
1/2 lb caster sugar
12 almonds
Top up with brandy.
My friend has made it and said it was delicious !
Excellent website! I was reading it all evening yesterday and now I am going to make sloe gin. The sloes I have found have turned from their dusty blue colour to non-dusty black. Does this mean that they are ready, or that they have passed their best? Do you think these will still be ok to use? I will make it anyway and see, but I just wondered if anyone could dash my hopes now, rather than after 3 months of waiting.
Hi Matt
Are you sure that they are sloes? Sloes always have a bloom.
Fn, I am pretty sure that they are sloes. They were a nice dusty blue colour in the summer when I saw them, and I got prickled to death picking them. I’m currently in Germany, so maybe the hard frost has turned them black. The sloes in the picture on this Times article are also look black, so I am hopeful that my sloes will be ok. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/article5061661.ece
I’ve now finished making 1 litre of gin with the blueish/black slows. I still have 1kg of black sloes (close to shrivelling point), so I shall buy some more gin tomorrow.
I tasted these black sloes and they are very sweet, so I am hoping that means they are just really ripe. Quite a few of them squashed during picking. I’m expecting that I won’t need to add extra sugar in 2 months time. Maybe this is how sloe gin is supposed to be made, but everyone else picks early for fear of missing out on the crop, and wanting to allow 3 months before Christmas.
Nice article that. I hadn’t seen it.
But sloes are supposed to be picked after the first frost for best effect. Maybe that does affect the bloom? But it could equally be the picking process and transportation that has wiped it off in the photo (or they have even been wiped for the benefit of the photo). But I have recently been investigating the difference between what I have, and sloes, and your saying that they are now very sweet doesn’t sound like sloes to me. Are what you have really as “round” as in that Telegraph picture? I think I have wild damsons, which are very similar, but just a bit less round (more a fat oval) and which hang more loosely from the branch (sloes have very short stems), but which are much sweeter. Although they are very pleasantly edible raw, I still wouldn’t call them very sweet, though, as you have. But there is also a related similar called a black bullace. I have no idea how sweet that is in comparison, but I gether that they are more round than the wild damson. It could be that you have those as well. And from what I gather both damson and bullace are actually more rare than the sloes, and even better. I know the gin I made from my wild damsons was totally scrumptious!
I actually missed the reference to having been pricked to death above. And it is blackthorn that is prickly like that. My (what I think are)damsons have a very few very long individual spikes (to be wary of), but they are not really what can be desribed as thorny. So yours probably are indeed just very, very ripe sloes, as presumably don’t often survive to gather that additional sugar.
I think I may have collected a mixture of berries from different bushes. I did notice this while collecting so I kept them seperate thinking I could have a range of quality in gin. Maybe I have found a collection of bushes from a past generation of connoisseurs.
Berry 1: The sweet ones which I have already ‘ginned’ still had some blue-ish colouring. These were the softest and the ones that I thought were sweet. They were oval shape and longer (just over 1/2 inch) than they were in diameter (1/2 inch). The gin has coloured already after just 3 hours. I did notice the skins bleeding purple as i pricked them.
Berry 2: The 1kg of black ones I have left are same size as above, but more sour (although not face cringingly sour). They taste a bit like plums, but look more like a very small black olive. The bush was prickly and had long individual spikes with fruit around them. So maybe I have wild damsons. I feel lucky if I do.
Berry 3: The 3rd berry had a blu-ish colour and was larger than those above. This berry was larger in diameter (3/4 inch) than it was long unlike those above. I didn’t have many of these so I didn’t taste them. The gin in this one hasn’t changed colour yet like Berry 1. I’m pretty sure that this one is the sloe berry. The bush still had leaves on, but but the bushes from berry 1&2 had lost there leaves.
Can anyone identify what berries I might have picked? I am currently living south of Munich, Germany, at the foot of the Austrian Alps. If this turns out good, I will save some seeds and grow my own bushes.
Not sure which ones you’ve picked but sloe berries are sour and dry – on touch of the cut side on your tongue and your face caves in! Also they are probably more stone than flesh. They have nasty thorns which can bring a skin reaction if you get badly scratched. And I wouldn’t recommend putting them in your garden unless it is quite large and you don’t mind untidy.
With regards to the plums Matt has collected they certainly don’t sound like sloes more like a sweet damson However if it is of any use to try and identify them have a look at the website link below. It’s always nice to know the fruit you’re using. You may have discovered an excellent new flavour and recipe http://www.naturalhub.com/grow_fruit_cultivars_plum.htm
A facetious remark, but you if you use all varieties of berry, just call it Wild Gin.
Today I found some more sloe berries in Munich’s Ikea carpark. I tasted them and my “faced caved in”. Thy had yellow-green flesh. Some of the branches were losing leaves and the sloes were turing black like the ones i described as Berry 2. These bushes were quite sheltered by the horrible concrete carpark, so I’m pretty sure that the other berries I have are sloes past their best. I now have enough to make all sorts of gin.
…And for those with a wild side that needs taming, I can make Wild Gin.
I think I’m becoming a member of SFTA as described by Danny on 12th July 09.
I’ve collected about 1 1/2 kilos of sloes today and approximately half of the sloes did not have the distinct bloom as normally associated with this plum. As we are not forcast any frosts I’ve washed,dried and deep frozen them. I’ve seen that there are the two spirit base versions for this drink but has anyone ever tried it with rum. or is there some reason that rum wouldn’t be any good for this process. I look forward to finding out if this has been another alternative.
Janice.
As mentioned above, I tried sloe brandy and the intital results are most promising. The fruit flavour of the sloes comes through but slightly differently due to the brandy base.
One thing I found is that as brandy is much sweeter than gin, I needed less sugar. In fact I had to add more brandy and sloes with no sugar to achieve a suitable balance. As rum is a sugar based alcohol, I suggest you use no more than half the amount of sugar as in the sloe gin recipes. You can always add a little more later, but you can’t take it out.
Please let us know if you try it and, more importantly, how it turns out.
Good luck. Paul S
Thanks for the advice I’ll give it ago with the rum and put less sugar in. I’ll let you know the results it could be interesting as I have a variety of rum’s to use.
Hi, I haven’t read all the comments above but wondered if you have ever sloed-up tequila? We’ve been doing this for a few years now and results are great.
tequila ice cream, a shot glass of sloe tequila on the side, could a pudding get any better?
Last night I decided to take the plunge and make the recipe with rum. The contents of the recipe are 400g granulated sugar, 1.5kg Sloes, and approx 2.7ltrs of rum. The alchol content of the rum used varied from 34% volume to 75.5% volume. The calculated alcohol content of the rum blend is 46%. The vessel I’ve used is a 4.5ltr demijohn and the contents fill the vessel to within 30mm of the top. This will allow for the adding of extra sugar if it is required over the next few weeks. Now to be patient and not tempted.
Hi Matt – Yep you’ve found the sloes!!
At the head of this section under Tips & Tricks, there is a mention of a recipe for Sloe Sherry. I’ve looked but cannot find it. Any ideas? Or is it simply a matter of tipping a bottle of sherry over the soaked sloes after the gin has been poured off (or drunk)?
Hi Alan
The recipe is here
http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/sloe-sherry-recipe-104
Hi everyone,
Like so many of you, I have been busy making sloe gin, vodka etc etc- I even tried spiced-up versions too. I have two concerns though and wonder if anyone has any clever thoughts:
1. I had two Ikea storage jars with metal-clip lids/ rubber rings (like cheap Le Parfait jars) only realised AFTER I had concocted my lovely mixtures that the jar seals are not 100% watertight… I have to gently stir and can’t invert them. Disappointed but glad I didn’t rush to Ikea to get more this afternoon (was the plan). Have splashed out on Le Parfait jars online- has anyone had any bad experiences with these?
2. due to lack of other jars I have been using any glass bottles with lids/ stoppers (all cleaned of course…) for my sloe gin etc. I was shaking and admiring them this afternoon and nearly had a panic attack: I have plans for the sloes after the gin has been decanted: sherry/ jelly/ christmas cake etc- I have been noting all the suggestions on this and other threads… How on earth am I going to get them out of the bottles I carefully stuffed them into????
Any ideas, esp on last point- greatly appreciated!
Helen
Hi Helen
Bad luch about the Ikea jars. I use Le Parfait jars and have never had problems with them. They are pricey but as the last for years they are a great investment.
Re getting the sloes out of the bottles. Generally they come out with a hefty shake or six.
Hi Helen I had the same problem with the Ikea Jars , if you go to an hardware store you can buy the rubber rings and as they are better quality you will get a watertight fit. I did this and the jars are perfect now !
Hi Helen, I notice you are going to use the sloes from your sloe gin for jelly, Christmas cake etc. I have been wondering what I can do with the gin soaked sloes from my first ever batch of sloe gin. If you have a recipe for sloe jam/ jelly please would you let me have it? Any idea’s welcome rather than just putting them in the bin.
Thanks,
Amanda
Hi Amanda
I’d be interested in a recipe too.
Hi all,
Fiona- thanks for the tip on the new rubber rings for leaky jars. Will go in search of some new ones… and maybe get some LP jars too…
I found soooo many sloes near my house and have made sloe and crabapple jelly- not ginned sloes as they are still soaking but I assume the principle is the same… used following recipe:
Sloe and crabapple/bramley jelly (I think Fiona has a similar one on this site somewhere…..)
-sloes
-double quantity crabapples/green apples/bramleys
-cook/simmer in just enough water to float until soft. Keep an eye so it doesn’t burn.
strain though jelly-bag/muslin as usual.
To make jelly: 1 lb sugar (I used a litle less as it was already surprisingly sweet) per pint of strained juice: boil and test for setting as with all jellies. Packed full of pectin and didn’t take long to set. Very plummy- not a hint of the astringence the raw sloes have. Resulting fruit puree (after straining) can be pressed through a sieve as you would for Damson cheese etc- the little stones are annoying though…
Both jelly and puree are delicious and deep purple.
I have read on many posts that the ginned sloes are eminently suitable for jelly etc and that the gin adds a certain je-ne-sais-quoi to the jelly: haven’t ever had the pleasure myself though but anything is better than the bin! Have no links to post on this though- or on the christmas cake idea… where did I see that again?? I think it might have been further up this thread or in a similar one (I think that was referring to Damsons- but my sloes taste so good cooked I feel they should get the same treatment)
Good luck and please report back!
Best wishes,
Helen
Thanks Helen, I will definately try the sloe jelly. I have 6 litres of sloe gin ‘brewing’ so plenty of sloes to experiment with! Have to admit that Hubby and I did test a glass or two of the sloe gin I started in Sept….just in case it wasn’t right of course! Very pleased to say it was delicious and now keeps calling from the cupboard!!
I read with interest about using sloes too early so last week I headed out and found some more sloes for batch number 3. Most had withered but I found plenty in a more sheltered spot. It will be interesting to see if the quality/taste does change.
Hi there
Have jsut read that bullaces are like wild greengages. We have a greengage tree and I never do anything with them as the jam I tried to make was like concrete – can I use them to make gin? We have successfully made damson and sloe gin (but are running out!!!!!).
Just bottled my first batch of sloe gin. It is a dark, dark purple and the almond essence is magical. Can’t wait until next year when I’m hosting a “sloe slog”. Ten or so mates with a prize of 2009 sloe gin for the pair who pick most sloes by weight. Great site, keep up the good work.
Robbie. When did you set your gin down?
At Christmas I bottled the batch I started in September. I do not add almond essence. It is a beautiful deep red in colour. I have found that if you keep the gin either in the dark or in brown bottles, it retains more of the red colour. I found a 2 ply J-cloth (new clean) an excellent filter to remove the residual bits.
The sloe brandy has also turned out well and needed significantly less sugar so will be a better gift to a diabetic friend – dont want to kill them off.