I don't have insomnia down here, but I don't seem to require much sleep. I usually only sleep about 3-4 hours a day, but seem to do fine with that. I don't know how the transition to total, constant darkness will affect me, though.
For fun I work a whole lot in my various jobs, read a lot of books, watch movies, play music, work out, write in my blog/journal, practice Russian, hang out and talk with folks, etc. It's pretty important to keep yourself busy to avoid becoming "toast" too quickly. It's boredom that really gets people.
As to the beer, yeah, it can be pretty cool very quickly if you set it outside. You have to be careful not to let it go too long and freeze. The heat got turned off to a storage building that had a bunch of beer for the station in it this summer. Needless to say, most of it was ruined and we were without the cheaper stuff (mostly Speight's and Canterbury Draught from New Zealand) for quite a while this summer. Oh, and a word of warning, never drink liquor that has been left outside. Since it won't freeze you don't know how long it's been outside, hence how cold it is, and drinking something that is -30F (that's actually a pretty nice day compared to our temps now) will really put the hurt on you. This isn't coming from experience, but the thought of that happening just really brings up some very bad images in one's head.