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
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 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
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 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.
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,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.
Hello Anne,
This sounds like lethal stuff! I will definitely try this. We do the same with sherry https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/?p=104
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!..
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
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…