Tender Charm is a collaboration with Andy’s Pizza and beer director Emily Brown. Over the last few years, Emily has built and steered one of the area’s best beverage programs. Walk into any of the locations in the burgeoning Andy’s Pizza empire and you’ll find an immaculately curated but always approachable beer selection. Our favorite spot happens to be in Shaw, where you’ll invariably find us throwing back lager — both local and more exotic — before any 9:30 Club show.

With Tender Charm, we set out to make a beer calibrated for such a session — and, of course, complimentary to pizza consumption. This 4.4% pale Franconian-style lager is crisp yet satisfyingly doughy, malty, and textured. We utilized a near even base of Weyermann Pilsner and Isaria 1924 (a German heirloom barley), and as a nod to the rustic qualities we love in Francoanian-inspired lagers, we folded in some malted rye, in addition to Vienna and Carafoan malts.

While not a hoppy lager per se, Tender Charm does give off some light citrus, spice, and floral notes from a duo of hot side German cultivars: Saphir and Tettnanger.

And since Emily is one of the world’s foremost dive bar aficionados, David Kammerdeiner’s label art imagines a cozy, dimly lit spot with an Ocelot tacker on the wall and Bruce Springsteen playing from the jukebox. Back in reality, you’ll be able to find Tender Charm at Andy’s Pizza soon… or right now at Ocelot, pouring silky smooth from our new Lukr faucet.