Two Somerville breweries made a special beer for PorchFest
And the proceeds benefit musicians from the School of HONK.
Update: The city of Somerville has moved PorchFest 2018 to Sunday, May 13
Nearly every Sunday, even in the dead of winter, a group of about 100 musicians marches through Cambridge and Somerville playing saxophones, trombones, clarinets, tubas, and drums.
The group is School of HONK, a nonprofit founded three years ago and featuring musicians of all ages and abilities, instructed by 30 or so volunteers.
“Every week we get someone who’s playing for the first time,’’ says executive director Kevin Leppmann, who also founded Somerville’s HONK! festival of street bands about a dozen years ago. “We learn by ear. It’s more show than tell.’’
Though the instrumentation is similar, School of HONK is not quite a marching band. Leppmann prefers the looser labeling of “street band,’’ noting that “anything can happen in a parade.’’ Because playing music outdoors is noisy, the group switches up its weekly routes so as not to consistently upset neighbors.
“We kind of turn Davis Square into a scene from Dr. Seuss,’’ he notes of one of the band’s performance stops.
School of HONK will be active during this Sunday’ss PorchFest, an annual event put on by the Somerville Arts Council in which Somerville is transformed into a massive, sprawling concert. Each May, more than 100 bands take to porches across the city to play all manner of music. Artists play two-hour sets, with the timing of their set depending on which part of Somerville the porch is in. School of HONK will occupy an early time slot, assembling 100 musicians and dancers in front of the Winter Hill Bank between noon and 2 p.m.
Somerville breweries Aeronaut and Winter Hill Brewing Co. are teaming up to provide the perfect liquid accompaniment to the event. Porchbeer 2018 is a collaboration between the two breweries, with all profits supporting School of HONK’s efforts to purchase new instruments and develop programming.
The beer is designed for day-drinking, clocking in at 5.2 percent ABV with clean, bread-y notes and aromas of peach, pineapple, and lime. It’s brewed with two different ale yeasts: Aeronaut’s hazy IPA yeast and Winter Hill’s Kolsch yeast. The overall bitterness is low, perfect for popping a couple back on a porch.
The brew is a limited release and will be sold throughout PorchFest, as well as on tap and in cans at both tap rooms. PorchFest takes place May 13, between noon and 6 p.m.
