Last month at this time, kids around the world were getting excited for the upcoming Christmas festivities; for craft beer aficionados the excitement builds for the release of Pliny the Younger, the seasonal triple IPA released by Russian River Brewing every February. A couple weeks after that, a few kegs are sent out to select Russian River accounts. One of those accounts is Beachwood BBQ and Beachwood BBQ & Brewing.

For the past four years Beachwood has been having a charity raffle for chances to win one (or more) of the 130 pints they will have available between their Seal Beach and Long Beach locations. The beneficiary of 100% of the monies raised goes to the Melanoma Research Foundation done in memory of a long time Beachwood friend, Tony Carbone who passed away in 2008 from Stage 3 Melanoma.

The process is simple and if you read this through to the end, there is a special offer for you. Raffle tickets are $5.00 each and there will be 130 winners. Tickets are on sale at both the Seal Beach and Long Beach locations between January 20 and February 21, 2015 at 10:00 PM. All ticket purchases are cash only. The drawing will be held Monday, February 23 and will be streamed live via the Four Brewers webcast. Winners will be directed to which location they can get their pint and they must be redeemed between February 24 and March 5, 2015; you want to drink Pliny fresh.

This has been a very successful fundraising event with Beachwood raising $7,000 in 2012, $9,000 in 2013 and more than $14,000 in 2014! In an effort to sweeten the pot a little, I am going to add a little something as incentive and you do not even have to win the raffle to win this.

UPDATE: I have two passes for two to join me on a personal tour and tasting at El Segundo Brewing Company; to qualify is simple. If you purchase a ticket for the Pliny Fights Cancer Raffle simply take a photo of your ticket[s] and either Like and tag me on Facebook or Follow and tag me on Instagram. I will pick a random person on February 22; each ticket that you tag me in gets you an additional chance. Good luck. Cheers!