Weissbier Connick Jr.

I have those socks

When I was in high school I was a big fan of Harry Connick Jr. He had done the soundtrack to "When Harry Met Sally" which was fabulous. He had an instrumental CD with his trio, a couple of solo albums singing standards and I enjoyed them all. He even starred in "Memphis Belle" and sang the best version of "Danny Boy" I've heard. Back in those days CD's came in long cardboard boxes where the CD cover was resized to be the cover of the box. I cut the front of the CD boxes and hung them on my bedroom wall. If I was going to be gay, Harry Connick was going to break my cherry.

At some point during my obsession with Harry he did the obligatory "60 Minutes" interview of the wunderkind breaking through into the mainstream with unmainstreamlike music. During the piece, Mike Wallace asked him about the standard comparison with Frank Sinatra. To which Harry said he will never be able to sing as well as Frank and demonstrated his voice and said "can you hear all that breath in their". Then they played a clip of Frank singing and sure enough, Frank was all voice and no air. It was a spot on answer to the question.

What does Harry Connick describing his voice in 1992 have to do with anything beer related? Harry's answer is what I thought of when drinking the Schlafly Bavarian Style Weissbeer.

The Weissbier tastes much like KC Beer Blog favorite Schlafly No. 15. It has the banana and clove flavors that made No. 15 so drinkable and simplistically complex. But, the clove and banana flavors are kind of mixed up with some light malt flavor and a bit of a watery taste. It kinds of tastes like a watered down No. 15. So much like Harry Connick's voice is kind of airy in comparison to the legend Sinatra, Weissbier tastes like a watery version of No. 15.

While I think Harry Connick certainly enjoyed Frank Sinatra, I think answering this question over and over again may have made him resent Sinatra. It certainly didn't diminish Connick as a performer, "She" and "Hope Floats" did that (as well as reaching a low point in the movie "P.S. I Love You" by having to tell Hilary Swank that she was gorgeous, perhaps the most difficult acting job ever, and not succeeding at all). But, "Red Light, Blue Light", "We Are In Love" and "20" were great CD's and definitely worth repeated listenings to this day. Just because Harry's voice wasn't as great as the Chairman of the Board doesn't make him less enjoyable. The same is true of Schlafly Bavarian Style Weissbier. It's well worth your time, it just doesn't quite reach legendary status.