Green Flash Brewing's annual cancer benefit and awareness event called Treasure Chest is happening this Sunday (11 Oct 2015) in Virginia Beach! Throughout the week, in the Hampton Roads area, Green Flash will be throwing #raiseaglass2015 events to raffle off tickets to this great event and help advertise the cause.

(Check out photos from last year's Treasure Chest - Virginia Beach here.)

Green Flash's Phil Shannon and me (always with something strapped to my shoulder)

Treasure Chest was founded in 2011 by Green Flash Co-Founder and breast cancer survivor Lisa Hinkley. All the Treasure Chest related events raise money to support breast cancer charities. A beer and icon are released with the announcement of the event.

This year's Green Flash Treasure Chest beer is a naturally pink IPA with grapefruit and prickly pear juice and hibiscus flowers. I haven't had it yet, but plan on grabbing one this week! Last year's was great, barrel-aged Belgian style saison with plum. It was fermented in red wine barrels with house Brettanomyces, then conditioned with plums for six months. It was very good!

The Green Flash crew at The Birch, Norfolk, VA

Hampton Road's 2nd annual Treasure Chest event will be held at the same place it was last year - on the Green Flash Brewing property connected to where the new brewery will open in 2016. Like last year, they have invited other local breweries and shops to participate as a community to throw the big bash.

I was one of the photographers last year (you can see some of my photos in the video linked above) and can tell you it was a great time. Everyone was having fun (some a little more than others, you know who I'm talking) drinking some great beers and eating delicious food. The first time I ever had a sample of Home Republic food was at Treasure Chest 2014. That's saying something because I get out a lot! Another thing is that my wife, Shelby, will be volunteering at the event too. I can't wait to see her in action.

If you want a chance to win tickets, hit up one of the #raiseaglass2015 events in the area leading up the actual Treasure Chest October 11th. I've sorted them out for you below:

10/6 - Tubby's Tavern from 5:00-8:00 PM (Virginia Beach)
10/7 - DoG Street Pub from 5:00-8:00 PM (Williamsburg)
10/8 - The Public House from 5:00-8:00 PM (Norfolk)
10/9 - Home Republic from 6:00-9:00 PM (Virginia Beach)
10/10 - Lynnhaven Pub from 6:00-10:00 PM (Virginia Beach)

Buy tickets to Treasure Chest on this page.

Photos included were from The Birch's Treasure Chest event last week.

October 11th was a busy day. Saturday kicked off with the CRAFTED: Indie Arts & Craft Market at O'Connor Brewing in Norfolk, VA. Local crafters were joined by crafters from Richmond to display and sell their work. We saw a lot of friends and our buddies at HomebrewUSA were there serving up their beer; a demonstration on home brewing was setup for those who wanted to see how it's done.

After O'Connor went headed over to Smartmouth Brewing--also in Norfolk--because Shelby saw that New York Souvlaki was setup there that day. We kept missing it when it was out so this was the perfect opportunity to finally try it. It was great! Lucas inside poured me a nice, cool Rule G Shelby and I finished while we ate our chicken and pork kebabs.

We went to Cheap and Cheery at Grape & Gourmet in Virginia Beach, VA after we finished up at Smartmouth. I've posted plenty of Cheap and Cheery event photos and it's one of the events Shelby and I look forward to every month. We bumped into a bunch of friends while perused and sampled wines, beers and ciders on the tables. A great event that lets you sample things you might not normally buy. Wen we finished at Grape & Gourmet we took a little break at home to finish up a pita full of meat called "The Bomb" we got from New York Souvlaki earlier. After our brief down time we headed out again.

The last stop of our run for the day was at Lynnhaven Pub to meet the local chapter of Barley's Angels. Barley's Angels Coastal Virginia is a group of female craft beer enthusiasts who aim to educate and promote craft beer in their region. One of the ways they do this is through volunteering and that night's meeting was a big one because the next day they were going to work the Treasure Chest event.

San Diego brewing company Green Flash has held a breast cancer awareness benefit called Treasure Chest Fest. This year is special for Virginia Beach because it was going to the first one and held on the future spot for a brand new Green Flash brewery! We bumped into a lot of friends and met the friendly people from Green Flash mingled about.

We headed home at a decent time but I still stayed up too late. In the morning I was headed to Treasure Chest Fest where I was asked to be the event photographer. I'll write about that later.

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