Damnson brandy

[PonuPeikko]

I just recently distilled a really nice damson brandy and didn't find threads on those so made this one.

Every year I make quite a lot of damson wine which is amazingly tasty, quite heavy on tannins and body pretty much like a red wine. So this year I decided to distil a small portion of it (made on a customized airstill due to low volume) and it came out amazing. Wine is made from pressing a juice out of damsons, then adding in the skins, pits and all to the fermenter along with the juice and fermented rather fast with champagne yeast, they contain around 10% of sugars so it ends up being around 8% abv wine. After fermentation I rack if off the skins, pits and other parts, then let it sit for weeks to months (when I have time basically), after that there's clearing if needed (for nice clear wine). Then bottled. How ever this year I ended up not clearing the wine since it naturally cleared really well (due to naturally cold crashing this autumn in my relatively cold fermentation closet). So after bottling each fermenter had about 4-5 litres of sludge which was mostly liquid but hazy in the bottom.

I distilled those in airstill, running it slow (I have voltage regulator in use with it) and making single distillation with quite strict cut, no tails allowed but bit wider in the heads due to most of the fruity notes being there. After going through all fermenters I was left with 7 litres of 57% damson brandy which I infused using piece of used and retoasted (around 215 degrees celsius) brandy barrel stave. No char on the wood. It took the oak notes quite rapidly, took only few days to get colour and taste was right at about two weeks (with amazing sweetness and vanilla notes). After oaking I diluted it down to 46% using the original wine it was made out of. So ended up with 9 litres of brandy which tastes rich, fruity and amazingly complex..

Does anyone else have experiences working with damsons? If so any ideas on what else to try next harvest. At least I'll be doing a case of brandy in similar manner to this one (but with a bigger still).

[Bradster68]

Sounds interesting. Iv made at least 100 gallon of Brandy in the last year. All from red wine. I toast and char my oak. This is an amazing sip when even a month old. I can't wait to see what time brings to it.

[zach]

I'm a fan of Romanian tuica which I believe is the most part damsons.

The production is very different from what you describe as the pomace is placed in the boiler. They have boilers that have a scraper in the bottom to prevent scorching during the strip. Then it's double distilled and is either served white or barrel aged in mulberry in the 45% to 55% range.



The flavors are complex with hints of vanilla and almond much like the slivovitz from other eastern European countries.

I made a little plum brandy a few years back, but was unhappy with the result as I only had 50 lbs of fruit and used sugar.

I finished my last bottle made by a friend from my last trip back in May. He is getting ready to do his annual distillation between Christmas and New Years.

[stillanoob]

I just planted some Damson's last spring so I haven't gotten any fruit yet. But I am a plum wine and slivovitz fan. We don't press the plums, just break them up and ferment them pits and all with enough sugar to get the wine to 12% so that it keeps. Rack once from the primary and once from the secondary and it comes out clear, tart and delicious.

For brandy we cheat a little and add 2% ABV worth of sugar. In years past we would squeeze out the must to distill. This year though we distilled on the stones and pulp to try to get a real slivovitz profile. It is much, much better that way. The almond and slight bitter is perfect. I prefer the slivovitz white and have never oak aged any. I am really looking forward to having the Damson's but I am a few years away from any real quantity of them.

[Demy]

I have fermented plums a few times and the result is fabulous. I generally keep it white. You could also try steeping whole prunes in a portion of your product. Fruit distillates improve a lot with aging even if white (no contact with wood)

[NormandieStill]

I'm making a sloe brandy this year (sloes are basically mini-damsons). I've fermented the pulp and it's going to sit for a few months on the pulp and stones before being steam-distilled to try and extract some more of the almondy (toxic) kernel flavours. If I could easily (cheaply) source either damsons or plums I'd be brewing up large quantities. As it is, I've got about 25L of sludge that will be going into the still somewhere around February (if everything goes according to plan)!

[PonuPeikko]

Those traditional eastern european plum brandys are interesting and most of the ones I've tried while traveling have been amazing. So I might look into those more.

Has anyone else tried diluting with the original wine around here? I found out that it made amazing difference, it accented the fruit flavour but didn't overpower distilled brandy. At least in volumes I used it. And worked amazingly well with oak flavours. I might be tempted to try it with other spirits as well, thinking about making aronia brandy next summer since I have quite a few aronia bushes which I've mostly made wine out of (which I love).

[PonuPeikko]

I'm making a sloe brandy this year (sloes are basically mini-damsons). I've fermented the pulp and it's going to sit for a few months on the pulp and stones before being steam-distilled to try and extract some more of the almondy (toxic) kernel flavours. If I could easily (cheaply) source either damsons or plums I'd be brewing up large quantities. As it is, I've got about 25L of sludge that will be going into the still somewhere around February (if everything goes according to plan)!

Steam distilling sounds interesting and practical with stuff like that which would burn otherwise. I might have to look into it at some point. Specially since I do have tons of fruit trees and berries growing in my property. Most of which are used to make jams and wines. But occasional brandy or "accidental" brandy like this damson experiment from left overs of wine production sounds interesting.