Vodka distillery makes use of region’s surplus baking goods
Good Bones embodies spirit of upcycling
Good Bones Distilling produces vodka and liqueurs in Whanganui from unsold/ surplus baking goods supplied by bakeries and cafes. Baking that didn’t sell the day before and would normally go to waste is sent to the the distilling, business, owned by Vaughan Campbell, who is assisted by his wife Emma and family.
The “waste” is converted into alcohol at the distillery at 1 Taylor St in Whanganui.
“Cake baker Laszel from Laszel’s Tiers of Joy makes amazing cakes, in the cake-making process there are offcuts,” Vaughan said. “Instead of those going to waste, we collect and freeze them until we have enough for a batch — around 15kg, then convert the carbohydrates in the baked goods into sugar.
“Then we add yeast, which converts the sugars into alcohol, which we call “distiller’s beer”, it’s then run through our still. We distil the alcohol from our “distiller’s beer” and distil it into our products.
“We select only the ‘heart’s cut’ from each batch, which is selected by smell and taste. We don’t use carbon filters so we can leave in the character and mouthfeel. What you are tasting is what has come out of the still.
“We add Crystal Valley water sourced locally, to dilute from 95 per cent down to 40 per cent alcohol content,” he said.
Vaughan is a mechanic/engine builder by trade, so it’s no surprise some of his customers’ vehicles run on ethanol.
When Covid hit, ethanol was diverted to making hand sanitisers. Knowing he was a distiller, Vaughan’s boss asked him if he could make ethanol for fuel. Research showed it wasn’t economically viable at the volumes the workshop needed. Days later, watching a news story about the environmental impact of food waste, the lightbulb went on — he could use his distilling skills to rescue food in his community by upcycling it into premium spirits.
“I saw Innovate Whanganui pop up on my Facebook one day, I thought I could enter my idea. I entered and ended up winning it in 2021. That was
We select only the ‘heart’s cut’ from each batch, which is selected by smell and taste. We don’t use carbon filters so we can leave in the character and mouthfeel. What you are tasting is what has come out of the still. Vaughan Campbell
the kickstart that got us into ‘Good Bones’.
Vaughan was diagnosed with leukaemia, which starts in your bone marrow. “I’ve got bad bones, the vodka-making journey allows me to produce ‘Good Bones’,” he said.
Batch number one was launched in November 2022 and although Vaughan is still finding his feet, he’s having a lot of fun doing it.
Good Bones products are sold in Liquorland Whanganui and in bars in the city. It is also sold in Palmerston North. Product-tasting sessions and tours of the distillery are available by request.
There are four products: straight vodka (40 per cent strength); blue raspberry vodka (40 per cent strength) — it’s blue and changes colour by adding lemonade or tonic, changing to a pink/purple colour; lemon liqueur (25 per cent strength) and coffee liqueur (25 per cent strength.)
Good Bones Distilling tries to keep everything as local as it can. “We’re the only vodka distiller using 100 per cent New Zealand ingredients,” Vaughan said. “We use a wild yeast found by our yeast propagators in the Rangitikei region.
“Our batches are ultra-small, with around 50 bottles produced per batch. There is a QR code on the bottle so that people can see what the ingredients are. For example, Batch 8 was made from Laszels tiers of joy. Batch 7: sourdough bread from Sour Bros bakery, batch 6 from rēwana bread from Jacksons Bakery. Batch 5 was made from bagels from Little Curious Bagels. It’s reducing their waste footprint.
“If any other business has surplus food products they can contact us. Everyone gets bottle number one of their batch and we invite them in to see the whole process, from delicious baked goods to equally delicious vodka/liqueurs.”