CityLife

Damson Beer

Damson beer

DAMSONS are in distress. This year’s awful summer means the harvest will be only a third of normal.

That’s bad news for the Lyth Valley, south of  Windermere, the epicentre of damson cultivation in this country. Damsons are said to have been brough back by Crusaders from Damascus (hence the name: Damascene being boiled down to damson) and planted by monks from Furness Abbey.

Today, their white blossoms welcome Easter visitors to the Lakes and their yellowing leaves dapple the Lyth Valley in autumn.

Trouble is the little fruts defy picking by machine and hand-picking is hardly economic. Hence the diminishing of the damson. Bullfinches and fieldmice don’t help. They crack open the stones and eat the kernels. In the valley’s hedgrerows you can find neat little stores of stones, assembled by mice.

Picturesque

Once, damsons’ purple skins made dyes for the wool trade in Kendal. Later it became a jam-making must, but pulp can be bought cheraper on the world market.

A cottage industry survives, making damson gin – and even whisky, it is whispered.

But the best way to sample the damson is via the Damson Beer brewed by Helen and Mike Walsh, former owners of the nearby Mason’s Arms at Strawberry Bank, up on Cartmel Fell.

The pair once brewed it at the the picturesque stone-flagged inn, which has a penchant for fruit beers, stocking several Belgian examples, such as Kriek (cherry).

Their  damson is brewed in the same Belgian lambic style every October/November, producing a fully-fermented bitter (and we mean bitter) bottle-conditioned beer (7 per centABV).

The Walshs sold the Masons in 2002 and moved production to near Kendal. They now ship damsons down to the Chiltern Valley Winery where the beer is brewed and bottled.

Their Damson  and Blackberry Gins are on sale at selected Booths’ stores (including Knutsford), as is the widely available damson beer. Just hope it won’t be acollector’s item this year.