Hubweek 2016

The Red Balloon is pleased to share the following Hubweek announcement:

HUBWEEK ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH DESALITECH TO UNVEIL FIRST EVER “BREW THE CHARLES” COMPETITION, OPENS REGISTRATION

Six Local Breweries to Brew Their Finest Charles River Beer

BOSTON, MA- July 21, 2016—HUBweek, a weeklong celebration of creativity and innovation in Boston, and Desalitech, a Newton-based global water purification and treatment company, today announced the creation of the first-ever “Brew the Charles” competition to take place during HUBweek in September.

As a signature event during HUBweek, the competition will consist of six Massachusetts breweries brewing exclusive beers from Charles River water that has been purified by Desalitech. The participating breweries include; Cape Ann Brewing Company from Gloucester; Castle Island Brewing Company from Norwood; Harpoon Brewery from Boston; Idle Hands Craft Ales from Malden; Ipswich Ale from Ipswich; and Sam Adams from Boston.

“Greater Boston is home to a number of incredibly creative and innovative organizations with global impact,” said Linda Pizzuti Henry, co-founder of HUBweek. “The Brew the Charles competition is an exciting opportunity to showcase the amazing work going on across the region, highlighting the growing beer industry right here in our own backyard. We’re thrilled to partner with Desalitech and the six local breweries to reimagine–and taste–one of Boston’s most famous natural resources—the Charles River.”

The collaboration will kick off in early August when Desalitech will facilitate a limited withdrawal of water from the Charles River and treat it through one of its breakthrough, industry-leading units that employs a reliable and efficient treatment process known as reverse osmosis. The result of Desalitech’s treatment of Charles River water will be potable, clean drinking water delivered to the six participating local breweries. The participating breweries will then initiate their brewing process and craft their final product over the coming weeks.

“As industry turns its attention more and more to water reuse and sustainable business practices,  we are proud to be a Massachusetts company that is helping large businesses and municipalities rethink their conventional water sources and reuse more of their water,” said Nadav Efraty, CEO of Desalitech. “We are thrilled to join with HUBweek and the Bay State’s creative local breweries to educate the public about the importance of water efficiency and the future of our natural resources.”

The Brew the Charles competition builds on last year’s HUBweek event with Harpoon Brewery, in which Harpoon partnered with Desalitech to brew a limited edition Charles River Pale Ale. This year, participating breweries are encouraged to demonstrate their creativity and innovation by brewing any type of beer, which will be showcased and judged by an expert panel, their fellow brewers and the audience as a part of HUBweek during a signature event on Friday, September 30 at the Boston Public Library. Audience members will have the opportunity to sample and vote on their favorites as part of the event, and a portion of the proceeds from ticket sales will benefit the Charles River Conservancy’s Swimmable Charles program. Registration for Brew the Charles and other HUBweek events is open now at HUBweek.org.

The Charles River Conservancy launched their "Swim the Charles" Indiegogo campaign to create a permanent swimming area on the Charles River. The campaign, which has raised over 45% and runs until September 12, can be found here.

HUBweek will engage participants across a wide range of topics and industries to understand and experience the innovation and problem solving that’s taking place here in Boston. This year’s lineup will also include:

• Demo Day at the Hynes Convention Center: On September 30 from 12-6pm, 160 visionary companies from leading local startup incubators, accelerators and corporate innovation labs, including MassChallenge, Greentown Labs, Harvard i-lab and MIT, will pitch, share and demo their work for recognition of their impact.
• Faneuil Forum in Faneuil Hall: On the evening of the first presidential debate, HUBweek is inviting participants to join in a truly civic dialogue and debate around today’s most pressing ethical issues, led by Harvard Professor Michael Sandel. Sandel will engage participants in debating today’s most pressing ethical issues, including everything from taxes to immigration.
• A number of competitions which will cumulatively give away more than $1.25M over the course of HUBweek, including: The Art of Talking Science; Babson Breakaway Challenge; Beantown Throwdown; Brew the Charles; Climate CoLab; Demo Day; Filmmaker’s Fund Award; MIT IDE Inclusive Innovation Competition

About HUBweek

HUBweek is a weeklong creativity and innovation festival, and a first-of- its-kind civic collaboration between The Boston Globe, Harvard University, MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital. The inaugural HUBweek festival took place in October 2015, and had 46,000 attendees, 106 events over 8 days, as well as 70 collaborating organizations participate. HUBweek’s mission is to convene, celebrate and showcase the most creative and inventive people in art, science and technology making an impact in Greater Boston and across the globe.