Perth city centre’s first microbrewery has started creating its very own sourdough pizzas for customers to enjoy during their visit to the taproom.
Since opening in December 2019, Will Bond, who owns Cullach Brewing, has expanded his business from six beers on tap to 12 and is now serving up homemade sourdough pizzas as part of the taproom’s offering.
Dishing up the pizzas himself with his colleagues Cammy and Scott, who work behind the bar and in the kitchen, the trio have been plating up a range of pizzas to order and customers have been loving the new additions.
Will noticed a decline in customers around 7pm in the evenings so was inspired to branch out into offering food along with their beers.
As a result, more punters have stayed at the premises rather than head home for dinner.
He said: “In the last couple of weeks we’ve just launched our own sourdough pizza menu.
“We saw that we sort of had a drop in attendance during dinner time. People would come in after work at about 5pm and then it would get busy up until about 7pm, then it would suddenly drop back down and then get busy again after 9pm.
“Clearly people need to eat in the evenings and we figured we wanted to do something that we provided ourselves, rather than just ordering food in. We ordered a couple of pizza ovens and converted a space out back into a kitchen.
“We’re also making our own beer now as well and we’re hoping to expand the menu into a few other items in the near future.”
With 12 beers now on tap, most of those are guest beers with around three or four of them made by the Cullach Brewing team. The beers are on rotation regularly meaning that customers are likely to taste something different every time they venture to the taproom.
Pizza flavours
As the pizzas have now been on the menu for a few weeks, Will is pleased at the positive feedback his team has received from customers, with a member of his staff helping to drive the production of the pizzas.
With prices starting at £10.50, customers can enjoy everything from a classic margherita to a vegan spicy chicken pizza with Seitan strips, one with spicy chorizo and venison salami and a breakfast pizza with sausage, bacon, mushrooms and black pudding on top.
There are six different flavours featured on the menu all with a sourdough base. Each pizza, except the Breakfast one, can be made vegan if required:
- The Anti-Pasti – Napoli-style sauce, mozzarella, sundried tomatoes, black olives, artichoke hearts and a rocket leaf of garnish.
- Vegan Spicy Chicken – Napoli style-sauce, vegan “mozzarisella”, Seitan strips, spicy jalapenos, and a sprinkling of vegan cheddar.
- The Margherita – Napoli-style sauce, Scottish mozzarella and a garnish of basil leaves.
- The Highland Heater – Napoli-style sauce, Scottish mozzarella, spicy chorizo, venison salami, sweet but spicy piquante peppers and a basil garnish.
- The Breakfast Pizza – Napoli-style sauce, Scottish mozzarella, pork sausage, crispy smoked bacon, grilled mushroom, and a dusting of black pudding and tomato ketchup.
- Halloumi and parma ham – Napoli-style sauce, Scottish mozzarella, halloumi, red pepper, sundried tomatoes, and strips of prosciutto parma ham.
“Since launching the pizzas, the feedback has been really, really good,” he continued.
“One of the guys who works for me has hands-on experience with making sourdough pizzas and working with them in this sort of environment.
“I’ve leaned quite heavily on him and his experience and between us we’ve come up with a menu that’s a little bit different to anything he’s done before.
“We’ve gone for a more traditional style of pizza rather than just loading them up with cheese and grease.”
Future plans
Now that the pizzas are firmly established on the menu, Will looks to the future of his taproom.
“In the future I would like to carry on establishing the taproom, expanding the menu, improving our offering and in the next year or two I want to expand the brewery operation,” he said.
“For now, the main focus is just establishing the taproom as the place to go for craft beer and sourdough pizza in Perth.”
The pizzas are available every from Wednesday to Sunday until 8pm.
For more information and to view opening times, visit the website www.cullachbrewing.co.uk