carbs are readily converted to body fat, alcohol severely inhibits your body's ability to burn body fat. neither is going to help you lose weight or stay thin.
personally, and this is coming from someone who's had success with weight loss after a lot of failure, i'd say it's preferable to drink the stuff you really like. just a little less of it, and have a water in between drinks. i'd rather have one satisfying beer than two so-so ones.
one other little gem i picked up is that your body converts carbs to energy much more efficiently during and shortly after exercising. i go for a nice long walk, jog or bike ride and then drink a couple guilt free belgian strong ales. four years later i'm still 40 lbs lighter.