Two recipes: Wild Damson Gin and Sloe Gin recipes
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Liqueurs | 713 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
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.
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 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.
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
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.
Hi Joanne if you go on 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 !
just correcting myself, albeit unrelated to topic. It’s palace ruins at Bishops Waltham, not abbey ruins.
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
Jano
Alyss has a recipe for bourbon ginger in the comments on this post
https://www.cottagesmallholder.com/superb-sloe-vodka-recipe-518?
Damn, not concentrating just bought bourbon whiskey for Bruador, does it matter??