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

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Miraculix said:
I have the goal to get really shredded so any additonal caloric intake is a hindrance for me atm.
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As a gymnerd i know this myself. Two hobbies that wont go well together. Even as litte as 2 beers can interfare(not only in terms of calories) with muscle gain, fat loss, perfomance. especialy when you are dieting.
Miraculix said:
it feels unnatural not to drink at that time. That is already a problematic tendency. It would be good to turn this around.
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Just skip the beer for 2 weekends. Maybe have max 1 beer during 2 week period and not in the weekend.
 
I never had problem with drinking. Im lucky enough that i really dont like the feeling of being drunk or even close to being drunk.
Still... Years ago, before craftbeer was a known thing were i live i used to frequently drink light lagers.:cask: Not much but there might have been more days i had beer than those when i didnt.
So i did something similar:
<'))))>< said:
I did a dry January this year, and plan to keep doing that.
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I was young and had to be better than everybody else. So i decided 2 months without any alcohol. Including non alcoholic beer, cider, wine etc. Because for this challange thats cheating. After 2 months i felt why stop now? And continued for another 2 months before i finally cracked the beer can. It tasted nowhere near as good as i remembered. It wasnt bad. It was just another cold drink.

After that i didnt feel any urge to have beer frequently nor at all actually. Since i was so long without it and didnt feel need to drink i drank when my "brain remembered" to do so. Sometimes maybe once a week, other times once a month. Sometimes few months past by without any alcohol.(And it suited well for me becaus that time i started focusing more on working out and dieting)

It wasnt until i "found" craftbeer i started to enjoy beer more frequently. But still very rarely for others thanks to my past.

Now that i brew myself its very easy to have from time to time "too many" or too frequently even tho there might occasionaly be 2-3 weeks in row that i "forget" to drink. But i dont want to build habits nor does it suit with my training life style.
I really like to brew and exbeeriment and like the craftbeer. So i give away a lot. Brew smaller 15l (3gal) batches and try to remember RDWHAHB.
 
I used to give away a lot too, but now most of my friends do not drink anymore... And I am sitting here with about 35 litres of strong stout and old ale :D

Luckily, these store pretty well!

I have brewed so many beers and the odd thing is that I really crave light lagers. I will brew one next probably. Small batch, ten litres or so, trying to decrease my stock rather than increasing it. Would be good if I would come to a point where I run out of homebrew. That won't happen I`m afraid. :D
 
I find it very hard to give away nowadays as well. In the past, being younger, it was just much more common to have people over for various reasons or to be going to other’s homes. So I wasn’t even “giving it away” per se.

Now, in our prime child raising years as the kids get older, we’re all just too busy to get together much. So it’s basically just me and my homebrew club drinking all my beer.
 
I've got two thoughts that don't seem to be touched on here. Both are things that I didn't consciously do for consumption reduction purposes, but looking back, they did just that.

1. It's OK to pour beer out. In my younger days this would be sacrilege. But if I make a beer and it doesn't turn out like I like it. I don't have to drink it. Pour it down the drain. If I pour myself a pint and halfway through I lose my enthusiasm- down the drain. If I made a beer and it's great, but I get bored of it, or the flavor starts to go south before I finish it- down the drain.

Of course the best case is to plan brews around hosting a party, attending a party, finding neighbors to take a 6-pack of whatever I brewed, etc. But if I can't find a good use for it, it's way better to pour it down the drain than force myself into some bad habits and drink when I don't want to, or drink more than I want to.

2. Get ANOTHER hobby in addition to homebrew. I know, who has the time!? For me, it's martial arts. 3-4x/week I've got evening classes. I can't go do that buzzed, so I don't drink before. When I get back, I'm tired and usually don't feel like drinking. For me, I'm not consciously forcing myself to go exercise and reduce beer drinking- then it becomes a drag. You're nagging yourself. I want to do the classes. The not drinking is just a by-product of my OTHER hobby. It doesn't even have to be physical exercise, there are tons of hobbies that don't require physical exertion but do go better with a clear mind.
 
Like the OP, my father was a functional alcoholic who became a not-so functional alcohol (fortunately sober for 30 years now). I remember him drinking an occasional beer when I was a kid, then gin and tonics when I was in high school, but when I came home for a few months in my mid-20s it was just straight cheap vodka. So right off the bat I knew that I should stick to beer.

I pretty much brew only lower ABV beers (bitters, milds, pilsners, etc.) and will make session versions of other styles. I have no interest in big beers any more. And I rarely drink more than one beer a night, except for on the weekends when I might have 2 or 3.

One way I gauge my alcohol dependence is whether or not I buy a beer when I go to a concert or sporting event. When the only option is $15 fake craft beer, do you feel the need to buy a beer? For me the answer is no 90% of the time. If you feel the need to drink 2 or 3 (or more) of those beers, you might have a problem.
 
micraftbeer said:
The not drinking is just a by-product of my OTHER hobby
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Yes same with me. Because i have 4 kids and want to have time with them in the evening i workout early in the morning while everybody else sleeps anyways. Wich means i go straight to bed after i put kids to sleep. And having beer every night is not gonna help me get better sleep.
On the other hand i tend do drink more when I cant hit the gym for longer time.
Miraculix said:
Would be good if I would come to a point where I run out of homebrew. That won't happen I`m afraid
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It happened to me. Even tho i gave away a lot. I still ended up seperate fridge half full of beer. And since i was busy renovating our home on top of work and busy family life I didnt brew for a while. It took 6 months before i ran out of beer and finally picked up brewing again this january. Now i have already brewed 8 batches under 3months. First 6 were over 5gal. First 3 are gone thx to the many friends. Expect few bottles wich i always want to lager for longer. One didnt turn out good so i let it lager but if i run out of empty bottles i start pouring it. Last two were only 3-4gal batched. Yet my fridge is full again. But i am okay with this i want to have variety of beer styles available if im having guests over.
From now on i try to brew smaller batches and less frequently. So the new beer doesnt get ready faster than I and my friends can drink. And i dont feel pressured to drink to just free up the space.

Sorry for multiple long posts
 
Brushwood Brewing said:
I try to stick to the CDC guidelines of 1-2 drinks per day. I occasionally make exceptions for special occasions (e.g. birthday, family in town, etc.).

If you have a spouse or housemate, or even a good friend that you keep in touch with regularly, ask them to keep you accountable. Express your goal and have them check in every month or so. I know my wife will tell me when it becomes a problem, so I'm a little less concerned than I would be if I lived alone.

If you have beer on draft, use a smaller glass. I often use an 11oz glass, which holds 9oz of beer plus head.

As others have said, focus on lower ABV styles. Berliner weisse, gose, saison, English mild, etc.
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Good post, but I disagree with one thing. I found that drinking a 22 oz. glass of beer was enough and it kept me from drinking 2 12 oz bottles over the same time frame. But I can easily make a bomber last for 2 hours.
I was a serious homebrewing alcoholic with up to 10 beers on tap and my upcoming retirement had me terrified I'd drink myself to death like my younger brother. But once I retired and never had to deal with clients or employees my desire to drink evaporated. So my advice is to quit your job and enjoy life.(joking)
 
micraftbeer said:
2. Get ANOTHER hobby in addition to homebrew. I know, who has the time!? For me, it's martial arts. 3-4x/week I've got evening classes. I can't go do that buzzed, so I don't drink before. When I get back, I'm tired and usually don't feel like drinking. For me, I'm not consciously forcing myself to go exercise and reduce beer drinking- then it becomes a drag. You're nagging yourself. I want to do the classes. The not drinking is just a by-product of my OTHER hobby. It doesn't even have to be physical exercise, there are tons of hobbies that don't require physical exertion but do go better with a clear mind.
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For me, it's woodworking, which I have enjoyed since long before I started home brewing. Still enjoy it. And WW + drinking do not mix. I keep an 8-12 hour bottle-to-throttle rule with power tools. Once the beers are opened no more tool time until the next day. Table saws, lathes and jointers are scary enough stone cold sober. :no:
 
I live in a small little town located in Southern California in the Inland Empire, famous for it's DUIs. I quickly learned that drinking beer is a privilege that I don't want to lose. I have some friends who's lives have been ruined because of alcohol and the police who can't drink at all. They are just misearable. Seeing this alone builds responsibility knowing a good thing that's worth protecting. Also just drinking on weekends makes something to look forward getting through the week. I think a lot of problems are caused by over stepping one's boundaries.

DMF
 
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balrog said:
A Wisconsin post and a Mayonnaise post, together.

Coincidence?

I think not.
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Need cheese curds to make the WI trifecta.

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I'm pretty much obsessed with beer but I am not an alcoholic nor do I think I have an addiction. I think about beer a lot and I even work in the beer industry. I homebrew (of course) and I get free commercial beer. I wear beer swag and pretty much everyone who knows me knows I love beer.

But I am a lightweight drinker compared to what I have read on this thread. I probably have 2-4 beers a week on average. My 5 gallon batches last me 3-4 months (current batch is going on 5 months (and yes still tastes good to me). My system only allows for one batch at a time because my kegerator doubles as a ferm chamber. So I have no pipeline. When a keg kicks I go at least one month without homebrew. And I usually only brew 4 times a year.

These are bottlenecks I've put in place to tap the brakes. One fear of mine is that if I become an alcoholic (besides the destruction it causes) I will have to come to a point where I can never drink beer and that is enough to keep my drinking light.

Also I was wondering if I was an alcoholic due to the fact that beer plays a big role in my life. But the signs of addiction usually means that it disrupts your healthy parts of your life. I'm very rarely "drunk" and I haven't seen it have any negative effects on other areas of my life.

But if you are worried using caution is the best approach.
 
Another thing to take into consideration about drinking beer or any other alcohol. The 1-2 daily is “okay” parameter is for men, and it’s for a 12oz serving of session beer and equivalent wine and spirits, about 5oz wine or 1oz of spirits. This perhaps 3 is considered “safe for a healthy man” not safe to drive and may not be safe to mix with other substances.

For women the research is not clear at all on what the safe amount is. Yes there is plenty of literature stating a glass of wine or beer has some bioflavonoids, minerals etc, and may be good for health. However, there is also a plethora of research downplaying those and looking at the health or disease of moderate to heavy drinkers and it doesn’t look very good.

Before being diagnosed with a substantial illness I was having a beer with dinner the nights I ate at home, so most of the time, and having more on some weekends. Long story short, after about 10 months of treatment and skipping beer accept for a half beer on a holiday I really limit the alcohol now, and I would think that it may have played a role in my health decline.

So, my brew buddies to enjoy this hobby and not become alcoholic or experience a serious illness, brew what you like and you can even keep brewing, just listen to your body and a take the feedback about your drinking from the people that care about you. If your spouse is on your butt about it ask yourself why. Are you getting drunk a lot falling asleep? Can you go without it?

Brew other things too, make the hop water and kombucha, (not too sweet) both are considered health tonics.

One final thought, if you find yourself drinking mostly to change the way you feel, or intentionally seeking to get hammered, and not because you are having a beverage then that might be a good reason to seek some professional help. Be well !!!
 
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Agent said:
My personal record on curd freshness was 7 minutes old.

Now there is a high that one could chase the rest of their life and never reach again.
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You'd have to go to the cheese factory and stand there with your mouth open below the chute. ;)

Back on topic, it'd be interesting to note how a booze-friendly state like WI compares to other states in terms of alcoholism or DUI rates per capita. The data is out there, I just haven't looked.

Wisconsin has a very strong tradition of "tavern culture." It's sort of similar to pub culture in UK and Ireland, a place for everyone to hang out. In fact, under-aged people can legally drink in bars and restaurants in WI if a parent/guardian is present.

By contrast, Minnesota takes a more conservative approach to alcohol. After all, this is the state that brought us Prohibition (Volstead Act). We only started allowing Sunday sales about 10 years ago, after years of the bills' supporters fighting opposition. Temperance sentiments still run deep here.

The MN/WI booze dichotomy is probably due to demographics. Both states have similar populations, but WI was settled mostly by Germans, and MN by more conservative Scandinavians.

My brother lives in WI and we visit a lot. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a bar there. He's been sober 30+ years, but he's the commander of his local Legion, so he hangs out with all the drinkers. Takes a lot of willpower to do that.
 
MaxStout said:
You'd have to go to the cheese factory and stand there with your mouth open below the chute. ;)

Back on topic, it'd be interesting to note how a booze-friendly state like WI compares to other states in terms of alcoholism or DUI rates per capita. The data is out there, I just haven't looked.

Wisconsin has a very strong tradition of "tavern culture." It's sort of similar to pub culture in UK and Ireland, a place for everyone to hang out. In fact, under-aged people can legally drink in bars and restaurants in WI if a parent/guardian is present.

By contrast, Minnesota takes a more conservative approach to alcohol. After all, this is the state that brought us Prohibition (Volstead Act). We only started allowing Sunday sales about 10 years ago, after years of the bills' supporters fighting opposition. Temperance sentiments still run deep here.

The MN/WI booze dichotomy is probably due to demographics. Both states have similar populations, but WI was settled mostly by Germans, and MN by more conservative Scandinavians.

My brother lives in WI and we visit a lot. You can't swing a dead cat without hitting a bar there. He's been sober 30+ years, but he's the commander of his local Legion, so he hangs out with all the drinkers. Takes a lot of willpower to do that.
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I'm here in very alcohol tolerant France, been here almost a month and have been oddly sober the whole time, with one exceptional day. My in laws have known me for 43 years as a fun loving, hard drinking, the party never ends kind of guy. But after spending 5 months here a few years ago and doing some serious drinking, even by my standards, I've cut my drinking by at least 75%. It's hard on one BIL who still invites me over for hourly doses of wine whenever he sees me in our yard, but I've finally gotten him to understand I won't drink during the day and only a couple of drinks in the evening. My wife and I will share a bottle of red wine with a good meal, some special cheeses, or when family come over. After a hard day of yardwork, painting, busting rocks I'll have a couple of beers, but my serious drinking days are over and life is still fine.
My family has a long history with serious alcoholism-not my parents, but most of my grandparents were heavy drinkers; my little brother got those genetics. But I didn't have any trouble cutting down. I went 5 months with just a glass of bubbly for my wife's birthday, then came back to France and learned to drink very moderately. I still love the taste of beer, wine, single malt Scotch, and over the course of a week I'll have a taste of each of those, but the days of wine for lunch, beer all day, wine for dinner and Scotch all night are over and I don't miss it.
 
MaxStout said:
For me, it's woodworking, which I have enjoyed since long before I started home brewing. Still enjoy it. And WW + drinking do not mix. I keep an 8-12 hour bottle-to-throttle rule with power tools. Once the beers are opened no more tool time until the next day. Table saws, lathes and jointers are scary enough stone cold sober. :no:
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My other hobbies are rockhounding, lapidary and some woodworking. All three require sobriety.
 
On the cheese curd note. I work at a place that makes cheese (Mass Produced), where in the process would you say the curds are 7 minutes old? While still in the vats after the curds are formed. After it is pumped from the vats and on the draining belts (Its squeaky bland at this point, no salt has been added yet). After the salting belt (still squeaky when you chew it but has salt added). The time frame for all this is 1.5 hours in the vat, roughly a hour on the belts before salting, 30 to 45 minutes on the salting belt. Then it is off to the towers to form blocks. I need to know!! Sorry for interrupting your regularly scheduled thread.
 
I'm not sure where dedicated curds get pulled off the line. But I could see the folks bagging up from a big tub, those bags getting labeled, and then thrown out to the piranha-like masses who need them still warm out of the process floor.
 
I spend a total of 8 hours brewing beer, most of the time is spent prepping, setup and cleaning. I am in no hurry to empty a keg of beer due to the amount of time spent brewing it. Similar to cleaning, you want it to stay clean for a little while at least.

Now that I am getting older with health issues, I learned to "listen" to my body and not only drink alcohol in moderation but also caffeine since it dehydrates your body.
 
I
corkybstewart said:
Good post, but I disagree with one thing. I found that drinking a 22 oz. glass of beer was enough and it kept me from drinking 2 12 oz bottles over the same time frame. But I can easily make a bomber last for 2 hours.
I was a serious homebrewing alcoholic with up to 10 beers on tap and my upcoming retirement had me terrified I'd drink myself to death like my younger brother. But once I retired and never had to deal with clients or employees my desire to drink evaporated. So my advice is to quit your job and enjoy life.(joking)
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^^ This! And there is definitely more to that than just a joke.

I am nearing retirement myself, been thinking about it for a couple years. Work and all the BS and idiot manager decisions that go on every day is a major source of stress and aggravation for most of us. We’re so short staffed we told our managers we couldn’t staff our shifts with the people we had. We have mandatory overtime for 4 people every week with nobody on pto and nobody can take pto unless people work more overtime on top of that. They came back 3 days later and transferred one of our people to another team and left us even shorter. The exact opposite of what any sane, rational, normal person would do. I believe managers live in and think in an alternate reality from the rest of us. The first part of manager school must be to remove the part of their brain that does logic and reasoning as most of them are idiots who cannot be reasoned with. When all that is removed from life, no doubt things will be different.
 
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bwible said:
I

^^ This! And there is definitely more to that than just a joke.

I am nearing retirement myself, been thinking about it for a couple years. Work and all the BS and idiot manager decisions that go on every day is a major source of stress and aggravation for most of us. We’re so short staffed we told our managers we couldn’t staff our shifts with the people we had. We have mandatory overtime for 4 people every week with nobody on pto and nobody can take pto unless people work more overtime on top of that. They came back 3 days later and transferred one of our people to another team and left us even shorter. The exact opposite of what any sane, rational, normal person would do. I believe managers live in and think in an alternate reality from the rest of us. The first part of manager school must be to remove the part of their brain that does logic and reasoning as most of them are idiots who cannot be reasoned with. When all that is removed from life, no doubt things will be different.
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I retired two years ago, I echoed your same complaints when I was working. It took about a month for me to relax, all of the stress of my engineering life evaporated.

I thought as a home brewer I'd be drinking more but that wasn't the case. Sure I had more time to drink but what I really had was more time to do the things I never had time to do before.

To the OP, I enjoy brewing, I enjoying sitting down and having one of my beers. Sometimes I over serve myself, it can happen real easy. A person that has an addiction should not drink, period.
 
Velnerj said:
.
But I am a lightweight drinker compared to what I have read on this thread.
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I’m a lightweight brewer and drinker compared to what I’ve read in these forums.

I scaled back to 3 gallon batches years ago, really before other people were doing it. And I still have too much beer.

I brew low alcohol stuff like bitter, mild, american lagers. I have one recipe thats a clone of a local amber lager that is 4%.

I brew barleywine once a year. Imperial stout maybe twice a year and I like to age one of those on bourbon oak. Developed a fondness for the strong beers, especially anything barrel aged. But I only want to drink those when its cold outside. My tastes change in the summer.

I don’t have any rules about not drinking during the week or anything like that. If I drink during the week its with dinner and food - either beer or wine. Beer with taco tuesday, wine with prime rib or steak. One or two beers, or we split a bottle of wine which ends up being 2 glasss for each of us and we don’t open another bottle.

I only drink liquor on weekends and holidays for the most part. 1 before bed is not out of line though.

Right now I have 5 kegs on tap: German Pils (most of a 5 gallon batch left), Ordinary Bitter (half of a 5 gallon batch left), Mild (half of a 5 gallon batch left), Munich Dunkel (most of a 3 gallon batch left), and a little bit of a christmas beer left that should kick soon.

I haven’t brewed since November and even with small batches I have plenty. Plus I have some hb in bottles and I buy beer.

There used to be an old tv commercial that said “Know when to say when.” I think as long as you’re able to get up for work in the morning, your drinking is not getting you into fights or getting you arrested or landing you in the hospital, not interfering with your life, etc then you don’t have a problem.

 
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bwible said:
I

^^ This! And there is definitely more to that than just a joke.

I am nearing retirement myself, been thinking about it for a couple years. Work and all the BS and idiot manager decisions that go on every day is a major source of stress and aggravation for most of us. We’re so short staffed we told our managers we couldn’t staff our shifts with the people we had. We have mandatory overtime for 4 people every week with nobody on pto and nobody can take pto unless people work more overtime on top of that. They came back 3 days later and transferred one of our people to another team and left us even shorter. The exact opposite of what any sane, rational, normal person would do. I believe managers live in and think in an alternate reality from the rest of us. The first part of manager school must be to remove the part of their brain that does logic and reasoning as most of them are idiots who cannot be reasoned with. When all that is removed from life, no doubt things will be different.
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Office Space is not supposed to be a documentary.
 

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