Tips and Tricks for Drinking Moderately

Interest in this topic sure fell off a cliff after January

Anyway, I saw this on the back of my bottle of Rio Reserva and thought it would be a cool feature for American brewers to pick up


No drunk math needed. This 11.2 oz bottle is 2.78 standard drinks. Although that does seem to be using a smaller standard than we use in the US as it's only 10.5% abv and just shy of 12 oz I would expect it to be closer to 2 drinks in the American system

 

Over the years, the TTB has loosened rules about listing ABV and other "nutritional" and caloric labeling for beer and other alcoholic beverages. Brewers are allowed to voluntarily put a "Serving Facts" box on labels, as explained in TTB Ruling 2013-2 Voluntary Nutrient Content Statements in the Labeling and Advertising of Wines, Distilled Spirits, and Malt Beverages
(Also a FAQ ). For beer, the serving sizes are as shown (below left).

The way I read the TTB's regulations, if sold in the US, they've got to use the above standards. A beer that is "only 10.5%" has a serving size of 5 ounces, so, yeah, by my math, too, the figure should be 2.24 servings.

TTB's Market Compliance Office at 202-453-2251 (option 1), or by email at [email protected].

 

Advice over the years has always mentioned to drink water between beers but mostly for hydration purposes. Another school of thought on this, especially when drinking beer at home, is to wait 20-30 min before popping open the next beer. Alcohol effect on the body has a slight delay. Your craving for that next beer may actually go away if you just wait a little while, vs instantly popping open the next beer right after finishing one. you have the “well I can’t waste an open beer/got to drink it all” mentality even if you don’t want any more beer in the middle of drinking one. I don’t know how many times I’ve rushed into a second (or third) beer only to fall off the Cliff of enjoyment of that beer 1/2 way thru it. Shouldn’t have bothered popping it to begin with.

 

This is why I need to be careful with liquor, as it has a delayed reaction and will hit me later and all at once vs beer that I feel much quicker (the carbonation in beer helps the alcohol to get into your system quicker).

 

I wasn't interpreting it as a serving size but rather as a "standard drink", i.e. 12 oz of 5%. By my math that would make an 11.2 oz bottle of 10.5% beer 1.95 standard drinks. So whatever metric their using is like 8 oz of 5% beer?

 

Yes,I think the math is off but the idea is excellent as I see way to many people who have no idea how much they actually consume

 

The "when sold in S.A" part has me thinking it's meant for the Australian market (S.A= South Australia) where a standard drink is the equivalent of 375ml at 3.5% abv (known as "mid strenght" beer).

 

For me, the more alcohol I drink, the more likely I am to thoughtlessly overindulge in a lot more food, period.

The reason I've started cutting down a lot is the effect on my sleep as I get older. More than one 8% beer, and I have a really hard time sleeping. Three, and I'm a wreck. It's a real bummer, but I need sleep more than I need that second or third beer.

 

I'm right there with you and if I drink too much I will snack unnecessarily and my sleep gets disrupted as well. It's just all the way around a net negative and why I have had to cut back and be more mindful, as I put in a lot of work over a week and one night of carelessness can destroy a lot of progress within that same week. When you are younger you can bounce back quickly but as I get older it's just not the same.

 

Ah good eye. I didn't even register that but the math seems to check out (though I still get 2.64 instead of 2.79)

 

I agree with both points totally as I know both type of people. The, hell yeah!! More bang for the buck and the few who might be led to being more cautious.
I also know a bunch who can deny whatever they read so they can overindulge

 

This is the program I’m on. Seems to work well for me.

 

1- Only drink on Weekend
2- Only 1 bottle
3- Not too many strong beers

I guess I don't need tips to drink moderately, this is moderation!

 

As others have noted, my regimen is pretty similar:

1. I keep a painfully low stock in the fridge. Rarely ever more than a single 6-pack or a few singles.

2. I rarely drink any beers beyond 5%-ish. I'm mostly a lager guy anymore. I think the most I've indulged past that was a 6.8% Julius.

3. One beer per day limit on Thursday-Friday-Saturday and I rarely drink during the rest of the week.

 

Just had a thought and wanted to jot it down here:

I was watching a Michael Pollan interview where he talked about the surprising effects of quitting coffee/caffeine for 3 months. He said that it was an eye-opening experience to how powerful even a seemingly innocuous drug like caffeine is. He still drinks it, but his words were "we have a debt to these plants that we owe them," which reminded me of the mantra of this website: "Respect Beer," like @Papercut4 said in a previous post. Not only respect the art of fermentation and beer itself, but also the culture that surrounds it. So, the next time I have the urge to crack a beer by myself for pretty much no reason other than "me want beer, beer taste good, beer feel good," instead I'll say "respect beer" and see how that goes.

 

Between pints i like to drink a pint of water. Keeps my hydrated and dont drink as much,

 

Started tracking my actual standard drink consumption, among some other habits, a couple weeks ago. Hoping it will help me moderate.

 

I recently did dry-February because February has the fewest days. That was my first dry month since getting into craft. The take-aways are;

• I'm still not an alcoholic, had zero issue stopping. Or restarting
• Initially lost a few pounds but later found them
  
• I took the opportunity to explore NA beers, discovering a couple of decent ones. Still, many of the NA's are missing more than alcohol. Several were flavorless and not true to the advertised style (lager, IPA, etc)
• Drinking wasn't aggravating my AFib, but it certainly is a main trigger of my arthritis. I was relatively pain free for the month
• I missed out on Cellaruary, so next year will do dry-January like a normal human
  
• I need to stop buying quantities of strong beers only to cellar them. I'll endeavor to limit myself to one or two singles each of favorites to have on hand. Exceptions could be CBS, BCBS, Utopias BA Stout and a couple others, but I need to get my cellar down to a couple dozen vs. the current 50+
• I'll find some lower (< 10% ABV) stouts to cellar
• I've cut down on days per week of drinking, and leaning more to lower ABV choices
• Initially my wife didn't believe that the beers I was drinking were NA
• I'll keep buying/reviewing NA's, but when I inevitably have to stop completely due to health issues, I still won't settle for NA beers