It’s Wednesday and its Rumor Mill Time! In spite of extensive planning Heavy Seas Deer finds itself in completely uncharted waters for 2013! We’ll be giving you everything that we know so far, plus we’ve some fast-breaking craft beer news from the boyz at DC Brau and an update from the Stone compound…We also have two hot new releases that you’ll definitely want to get your hands on. So fasten your seatbelt because…THIS WEEK’S RUMOR MILL IS ON!

Heavy Seas Now in Uncharted Waters (Baltimore, MD) Heavy Seas Beer has announced a name-change for its Munity Fleet series and that new name will be Uncharted Waters. The series will highlight their high ABV seasonal special releases sold only in 22 oz bombers. The Uncharted Waters will debut in January with Siren Noire an imperial chocolate stout transferred & aged in freshly emptied bourbon barrels. Their aged double IPA Big DIPA rolls out in March. Their Abby-style barrel aged ale, Holy Sheet, is scheduled for May, with Great’ER Pumpkin, a bourbon barrel Imperial pumpkin ale, to follow in September. Yule Tide A spiced, wood-aged winter seasonal wraps things up in December.

Stone to Give Europe Another Look in 2013 (Escondido, CA) – As we’ve been reporting all year the Stone Brewing Company has been very busy on a multitude of fronts. They’d been searching for a location to build a brewery somewhere in Europe but were forced to put that project on the back burner, and concentrate on everything they had going on back in the states, after several possibilities fell through. But according to Eater San Diego Stone’s Greg Koch is indicating that they’ll start looking in Europe once again in 2013 with special attention being paid to Berlin…hmmmm.

DC Brau Getting Bigger (Washington, DC) DC Brau Brewing Company, the first production brewery in the District of Columbia since 1956, announced its 2013 production expansion plans of today. The brewery will be increasing production from 5,000 barrels annually to over 12,000 barrels (One barrel equates to roughly two kegs of beer.) According to CEO Brandon Skall, the new tanks should be up and running in January. This move will more than double the DC beer company’s current production and that’s a good thing.

Not Sure If This Is A Good Idea (Asheville, NC) – According to the Mayan calendar, Dec. 21 may be the end of the world. It may also be opening night for Asheville’s new Wicked Weed Brewery and restaurant. Walt Dickinson, his brother Luke and brewer Eric Leypoldt have put together a very impressive 15-barrel system, according to The Asheville- Citizen Times but they could not be persuaded to open prior to December 21^st so we’ll just have to see how that works out. Test brewing began last week, and by opening day, they hope to have 14 beers on tap.

Oscar Blues Getting into the Fast Food Biz (Longmont, CA) – This is something we haven’t seen coming out of the craft industry, a craft brewer getting into the fast casual food trade. That’s what Oscar Blues is doing according to the Longmont TimesCall.com. The appropriately named CHUBurger will join Home Made Liquids & Solids as Oskar Blues’ two Longmont eateries. Its targeted opening date is February 1^st.