Advice on how to enjoy homebrewing over the years without becoming an alcoholic.

[Clint Yeastwood]

I could be wrong, I'm not a doctor but I think there's folks who like to drink, may over consume at times but are not an alcoholic.

It seems to me that some people have a self-limiting apparatus, and others do not. I don't think willpower is much of a factor, because there are drunks who are very disciplined in other areas. The same is true for fat people, and the world is full of skinny people who are total idiots.

If I have three pints in one night, I can feel it the next day. I don't want to have that feeling every day. The next day, I don't feel like drinking as much.

My college roommate, who enjoyed drinking alone, could get drunk two nights in a row. I could never do that, and I drank like a fish in college. I could get really drunk every Saturday, but I could not get drunk on Friday and again on Saturday.

My family lived next to an old Irish lady, and she used to fill a tumbler with vodka and chug it. She was beyond hope.

Seems like an awful lot of alcoholics end up on vodka or wine. Vodka is supposed to be less likely to cause hangovers, and alcoholics tell themselves no one can smell it on them. Of course, everyone else can smell it 10 feet away. Wine is very easy to drink, and cheap wine is everywhere.

 

[brewbama]

Hi All,

I've been home brewing a few years and really enjoy it. On the subject title I am not looking for medical advice necessarily, I don't have alcohol used disorder or a physical addiction to alcohol. But i recently watched my Dad, a closeted alcoholic for a long time, spill out of the closet. I never want to go through what he did. I wanted to hear from some of you who have been brewing for many years and still have a healthy relationship with alcohol. What rules do you follow to keep beer around as a hobby long term without easing gradually into more dependence?

I would also love hear some of your favorite low or ultra low abv beer recipes. My favorite commercial beer is Guinness Draught, and I'm interested in adding botanicals/foraged plants to beer.

Thanks!

This is how I deal with consuming my products responsibly. This may not work for everyone but it works for me. I found myself drinking 2-3 pints per night plus more on weekends. I wasn’t getting snot slinging drunk but I ‘took the edge off’ daily. Needless to say I was gaining excess weight (stored as fat) due to the caloric intake beyond what my daily energy needs were. So, I decided to make changes.

First, I reduced consumption to weekends only. 2 beers Sat and 2 Sun. This cut way down on consuming the beer, now I had too much beer so I wasn’t brewing as much. In addition I didn’t have the variety I craved. So, I had to make more changes.

I began brewing 3 gal batches (down from 5) . However, I still had ‘excess’ beer on hand. So, I had to find ways to give away beer. About that time the Master HomeBrew Program article came out in Zymurgy. Competition Brewing is a great way to brew routinely keeping the brewday count up, keeping variety on tap, not drink too much, etc. …and the feedback has improved my beer.

In fact, I found that I needed to brew more. So, I bought a 3 gal fermenter and three 1.5 gal kegs. I brew large batches (3 gal) to mostly consume and give away, and small batches (1.5 gal) to taste and mostly give away.

Now, I get variety, don’t drink as much, and have found the MHP provides structure to answer the age old question of what to brew next. I never was a competitor per se but I enjoy competition brewing.

I am one 30 + point Lager away from ranking up to ‘Recognized Brewer’ and I am 1/3 the way towards ‘Jack of all Trades’ (brewing 1 30+ point beer in each of the 41 categories of Beer/Mead/Cider).

Oh, and I am down 75 lbs. From 38 to 32 size waist pants/shorts.

 

[beersk]

This is how I deal with consuming my products responsibly. This may not work for everyone but it works for me. I found myself drinking 2-3 pints per night plus more on weekends. I wasn’t getting snot slinging drunk but I ‘took the edge off’ daily. Needless to say I was gaining excess weight (stored as fat) due to the caloric intake beyond what my daily energy needs were. So, I decided to make changes.

First, I reduced consumption to weekends only. 2 beers Sat and 2 Sun. This cut way down on consuming the beer, now I had too much beer so I wasn’t brewing as much. In addition I didn’t have the variety I craved. So, I had to make more changes.

I began brewing 3 gal batches (down from 5) . However, I still had ‘excess’ beer on hand. So, I had to find ways to give away beer. About that time the Master HomeBrew Program article came out in Zymurgy. Competition Brewing is a great way to brew routinely keeping the brewday count up, keeping variety on tap, not drink too much, etc. …and the feedback has improved my beer.

In fact, I found that I needed to brew more. So, I bought a 3 gal fermenter and three 1.5 gal kegs. I brew large batches (3 gal) to mostly consume and give away, and small batches (1.5 gal) to taste and mostly give away.

Now, I get variety, don’t drink as much, and have found the MHP provides structure to answer the age old question of what to brew next. I never was a competitor per se but I enjoy competition brewing.

I am one 30 + point Lager away from ranking up to ‘Recognized Brewer’ and I am 1/3 the way towards ‘Jack of all Trades’ (brewing 1 30+ point beer in each of the 41 categories of Beer/Mead/Cider).

Oh, and I am down 75 lbs. From 38 to 32 size waist pants/shorts.

Man, that's wild. Congrats on that. How long did it take to lose that much weight?
I don't need to lose that kind of weight, but 20lbs would be nice. I'm 5'8 and 175lbs. Fairly muscular build and I carry it well, so most people probably would say I don't need to lose weight. But I think I look and feel my best when I'm about 155 or so. Currently wear size 34 pants/shorts and medium tshirts.

I've taken month-long breaks here and there and didn't really lose much weight. A month probably isn't long enough. I hear about people losing 10lbs in the first week and I think, what planet do you come from where that is even possible? It's probably water weight.
Since the body processes alcohol differently the calories don't factor the same way as food. If you drink and eat, the body will concentrate on the alcohol calories first, which is why you get the "beer belly", ie the food you eat with the beer just gets stored as fat.

But the important thing for me, is when I don't drink beer, my blood sugar is way more leveled out all the time. I don't get as hungry the next morning, etc. So in essence, I eat less.

Currently, I'm still beerless and feeling just fine. I'm going to keep it going for a while and try to drop some good weight and then get back into drinking lower alcohol beers. I brewed a leichtbier yesterday so I'm looking forward to that in about 6 weeks or so.