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
Been using your recipe for several years now and always with great success. We give alot in 1/3 bottles at Christmas and people enjoy it so much that they return the bottles. 8kg of damsons this year picked in only an hour what an (early) crop – too easy! Found a great 8 litre Kilner jar with a built in tap that has made things much easier. If only the minimum price per unit hadn’t pushed up the ‘raw material’ so much! Thanks for the original recipe 🙂
have found a fantastic crop of damson this year probably had about 20kg so far done damson gin vodka and wine, will be doing jam soon. I could have had a lot more Damsons but blackberries, sloes apples rose hips are all plentiful. I have to remember that I have limited storage and have to watch my alcohol consumption, but how long should one leave the grog before drinking
I make sloe gin every year, harvesting in Sept, bottling for about 3 months just in time for Xmas. I drink it immediately and dont find much change over the next 6 months (about the time it lasts if i’m lucky!). Its a bit bit like gin or whisky, that doesn’t change with time either.
As a child my mother always added the fruit from the sloe and damson gin from the previous years vintage into the Christmas cake and Christmas pudding mixture. I have added spices and made ice cream with the left over fruit. Very yummy.
Just made a batch of this using damson and vodka. Here’s to Christmas!!!
Are the sloes ready now then? Noticed they seemed early but my local ones were still hard to the touch a couple of weeks back. I better get picking!
Nice clear recipes and comments
I moved to a new house this year which has 3 Damson trees in the Garden. This year was a bumper crop and so for the first time I made Jam and Damson Gin. I put the gin in the store room mid September and would quite like to bottle it for christmas gifts this year. Would that be too early to strain the berrys and decant to smaller bottles? I don’t want to ruin it by taking them out too early. Would it still continue to improve over time even without the Damsons in there?
Thank you
Hi Zoe. I believe you could strain and decant them now, yes, three months is okay. Personally I would keep them for another couple of months, but I understand the desire to give some away for Christmas! If you can keep some for a while then I suggest you do so and then compare and see what you think. Yes, it definitely improves over time after decanting, and becomes softer and gains depth, I think. Not that it’s ever around for all that long, but I tried some that was two years old a while ago and it was wonderful. I envy you your trees. I have no damsons in my garden, and couldn’t find any this year.
Max.
Max, thank you for your note. I think I will take your advice and decant some of it to give out as presents with my damson Jam and keep the remainder a with the fruit a bit longer. I have never had damson gin in fact I haven’t even had sloe gin so am really looking forward to tasting it!
A really good way to prick the sloes it to make this device: http://stuffiwanttomake.co.uk/the-amazing-pendse-sloe-pricking-device
Dear Pat,
Last year our damson gin exploded after we had bottled it. Please can you tell us what did we do wrong?
Your recipe has served us well these last 4 years and now we have a bumper damson/bullace harvest. Tomorrow will see us bottle 6litres but what to do with the other 3kg – jam?! Thank you
Now I have a bottle of sloe gin that we made 3 years ago and keep forgetting to drink. I was just given two rich, dark fruit cakes, Dundee-ish I guess. I am thinking of preserving one by soaking it in brandy, and then it occured to me it might be great to soak it with the sloe gin I keep forgetting about. Good / bad idea?
Adam – That would be a waste of 3 year-old Sloe Gin, in my opinion. It tends to improve in the bottle.
Have at least some of the Dundee cake with a glass of single malt – a marriage made in Heaven. Well, Scotland, anyway.
Max.