Two recipes: Wild Damson Gin and Sloe Gin recipes
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Liqueurs | 711 comments
Wild damsons are a beautiful rich dark colour
Unlike sloes, 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
Tips and tricks:
- 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.
| Wild Damson Gin and sloe gin Recipes |
Recipe Type: Liqueurs
Prep time: 15 mins
Total time: 15 mins
Ingredients
- Wild damson gin:
- 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
- Sloe Gin:
- 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
- 1-2 drops of almond essence
Instructions
- Wild damson gin:
- 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:
- 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.
Leave a reply
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.
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 Des,
You can buy almond essence in the baking section of Waitrose. I am sure other supermarkets must stock it too.
Just tripped on this site and it’s just what I’m after. Where can you buy almond essence?
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
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=473.
Fermented sloe gin recipe
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=471
More sloe gin experiments and recipes
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=442
Blackberry whisky recipe
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=422
Raspberry vodka recipe
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=362
Seville orange gin recipe
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=193
Kumquat liqueur recipe
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=182
Italian sweet chestnut liqueur recipe
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=119
Lemon gin recipe. This is superb
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=112
Sloe sherry recipe
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=104
Grapes in grape liqueur recipe
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=100
Chilli sherry recipe
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=98
Raspberry gin recipe
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=53
Bullace vodka recipe
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=41
Wild damson gin and sloe gin recipe (you have seen this one)
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=37
Happy glugging.
All our recipes are seasonal. Generally we post on food (ish) every other day.
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 :o)
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.
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 Brian
Thanks for leaving a comment. I’d love to hear how your low sugar sloe gin turns out.
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.