We have our own little saying that life's more fun when it's a bit wonky. This isn't simply a slogan that we thought would sound good and we didn't "borrow" it from a song we liked. The phrase is an acknowledgement that we cannot be perfect and it is underlined by the principles we are working to - that of being homemade and with so much done by hand.
As a small business focusing on quality produce but without the scale of big business we are forced to do so many of our processes manually. Whenever we produce a new batch of our gin then we know we have to fill each bottle individually without machinery. We have to clean the bottles individually, add the bottle caps and seals manually and we have to label the bottles manually. All of this is time-consuming but also open to error. Putting a label on is tricky when you are doing it by eye and very often the labels go on slightly out of line - they are a bit wonky.
It's the same with many things we produce. The effort to put things right would be excessive and costly. Perfection is costly and is also open to interpretation. Big businesses with precise machinery have the luxury of very high adherence to specifications when it comes to their final products. At Wych's Brew we put more emphasis on the contents of the bottle rather than having perfection on the outside. We embrace being a bit wonky because it is who we are and where we have come from. We do not feel threatened by being a little bit quirky and so far our customers have never complained that a label might be slightly out of line.
Fortunately we are living in times where local, handmade, artisan products are embraced and there is a strong understanding that it is okay to be a bit different. So when you see us smiling and saying that we are a bit wonky then you know it's coming from a place of genuine pride and from the heart.
