General ⇒ beamer | Setting / using Class Options

[EdGatzke]

I am trying to use LaTeX to generate handouts and presentation slides with beamer.

To switch between the two types of output, I currently have to add/remove a [handout] option and set/remove options in the preamble.

Is there any way to access the class options as a variable in the head, then maybe make definitions conditional?

Alternatively, is there a way to set class options from the preamble?

Thanks!