I don’t know about you, but Christmas has literally thrown-up in our house. In the midst of unpacking boxes from my illustrious Cyber Monday Extravaganza Experience (by which I mean, it was raining, the DSL sucked and the router signal was low in the area I needed to be), it now looks like a bunch of drunk elves attacked our house. There are presents unwrapped in piles, scattered rolls of wrapping paper, miscellaneous ribbons floating around, shipping boxes (which we’ll reuse for beer!) and all kinds of weird packing materials. And might I say, not one—NOT ONE—piece of bubble wrap in the mix. Don’t they know you need bubble wrap for the stress of these types of situations? I forgot to write down who was supposed to get which present for the “could-be-for-anyone” gifts causing general confusion. The Bear dog thinks everything is for him, too, making the process even more difficult as he sticks his nose in everything and I find random things in other parts of the house. Oh, plus, I’m doing my pre-holiday cleansing ritual of #nobeer at the worst possible moment, some say backwards. But I digress, as the world is NOT ending, I assure you…

Genesse converts old storage tanks into beer cans
Up in Rochester, NY, the owners of the old Genessee beer plant have converted three old 280,000-gallon tanks into art! Yup, they’re slapping massive wrap-arounds on their old outdoor tanks to look like the old cans of Genessee beer. It wasn’t good beer, but it’s a sentimental thing, so we approve. [Photo: Shawn Dowd, Associated Press]

“Space Barley” has been released in Japan
Yeah, you read that right. Remember months ago (maybe a year?) when Sapporo sent some barley to the Space Station? Well, after five months, they retrieved it and brewed with it, making just 250 six-packs that will be auctioned for charity. Okay, nifty little promotion there, but would you drink it? Personally, I do not know if I’m ready for space beer just yet. But beer IN space is something I can get behind.

ABC discovered Sam Adams Utopias
The beer has been made for years, but we love it when mainstream media discovers old beer news for the first time. It just shows how on top of things they are! So, yeah, Utopias has been released (last week, actually). The 27% beer that comes in a mini-copper brewers’ vessel and costs $150 or more, depending where you are. If you live in one of the few states that actually sees this stuff and have dispensable income, we suggest buying it. Pretty special stuff. “Due to legal restrictions, Samuel Adams Utopias is not offered in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, or West Virginia.”

The Hop Press
In the world of beer sites, the two big players are still RateBeer and BeerAdvocate. Normally, we have used the latter more often in the past, but I gotta say, RateBeer’s redesign without all the eye-bleed-inducing emoticons and colors is slick; the numbers rating system is a bit bitter—gives a better understanding than A, A- and B+—and now they’ve got the Hop Press. If you haven’t noticed this addition to their site, now you know. Regional reps from across the country. We’re proud to say that RateBeer actually asked us for help in finding someone for our area of the world, and that person is Brian Cendrowski of Untamed Beer. He lives in Greenville, SC. (He’s also the person who picked-up Sam Calagione from the airport back in May for us and we’re forever grateful he didn’t actually steal him.) So check it out often. And you can follow Hop Press on Twitter, too, @hop_press.