How bartender Tim Laferla opened a distillery making spirits from food waste
Here Tim talks about the branding process, concepts, and building a distillery with no outside investment.
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The third masterclass of the Bourbon & Bubbles series from Angel’s Envy in collaboration with Behind The Bar with Cara Devine, will be at 2.30 pm on Monday October 30 at Whisky & Alement with their bar manager Lachlan Watt and The Mulberry Group's Kayla Saito. They will cover koji fermentation and bottle conditioned cocktails.
The final class will be held at 2.30pm on Tuesday November 14 at PAR talking on imitation ferments and force carbonation with Tim Pope and Tony Huang, joined by Tom McHugh from Hazel. Cara Devine will be taking over the bar post masterclass to close out the series. Get the the details here.
Have you ever thought about starting your own liquor brand? Opening your own distillery?
Award-winning bartender Tim Laferla is someone who has done just that. It’s called Damaged Goods Distilling Co. — a great name for a brand, if you ask me — and they have three products currently available and made from food waste — the Smashed Apple Aperitivo I think is particularly delicious.
Tim is my guest on this episode of Drinks At Work, and in this interview we talk about his start in Perth bars like the seminal Mechanics Institute, how his time working in London for Michelin chefs and in zero waste venues shaped his thinking, and how he and his partner Pia Papenfuss have gone about setting up the distillery and why they’re using food waste to make their spirits.
He’s a super smart guy, and there’s a lot to learn from his experience.
You can listen to the latest episode above, in the Apple Podcasts app, on Spotify, or your podcast player of preference.
Three things with Tim Laferla
“I ended up learning off other people the whole cocktail side of things and really pushing myself by entering competitions.”
There are two types of bartenders: those who participate in cocktail competitions, and those who don’t. And again and again, through these interviews, I find that many of the bartenders I’ve spoken to who go on to distilling or to ambassador roles, or open their own bars — those with deep and long careers in the business — have more often than not used cocktail comps as a way to broaden their knowledge and experience, and to get their names out there.
Maybe that’s because the people that go on to have long and interesting careers are particularly motivated people and they see comps as a way of pushing themselves — those do tend to be the people who end up crafting an interesting career.
“All. Our spirits are made with food waste of some description.”
Distilling spirits has been for hundreds of years a way of making the most out of the things you have: if you look at grappa and marc, they’re fundamentally eau de vies made from the leftovers of the winemaking process — the crushed stems and skins of grapes. It’s making the most of whatever you have.
That’s kind of the approach that Tim is taking with Damaged Goods Distilling Co. The Smashed Apple Aperitivo, for instance, is made using the leftover apple pulp from a nearby cider maker. The Final Squeeze Citrus Gin is made using the leftover husks of citrus from a juice company. It’s not a revolutionary idea, but it’s a smart idea and — as is the case here — a delicious one.
“The concept makes it so easy.”
When it comes to the branding, the choice of label, the design, the decisions around which spirits and products to make, everything has to relate back to the core concept, says Tim.
“Doing the right thing by the environment and trying to minimise our own waste and footprint — that’s our guiding principle,” he says. “So every decision we make comes back to that in a way. So that actually made it super easy because it means when you’re looking at packaging, you think about that.”
You can learn more about Damaged Goods Distilling right here at their website.
The third masterclass of the Bourbon & Bubbles series from Angel’s Envy in collaboration with Behind The Bar with Cara Devine, will be at 2.30 pm on Monday October 30 at Whisky & Alement with their bar manager Lachlan Watt and The Mulberry Group's Kayla Saito. They will cover koji fermentation and bottle conditioned cocktails.
The final class will be held at 2.30pm on Tuesday November 14 at PAR talking on imitation ferments and force carbonation with Tim Pope & Tony Huang, joined by Tom McHugh from Hazel. Cara Devine will be taking over the bar post masterclass to close out the series. Get the the details here.
