Ok I am a proud Beer Snob, I won’t refuse a Bud Light but if I am buying and have the cash I love my craft brews and good imports. My question is about bolusing for beer. My DE tells me flat out no, I have read in a few places to do it carefully. When I have tried to explain to my DE that I am drinking a strong ale that has lots of sugar and live yeast I get a total blank stare.Same even if I bring up Mead. Had one tell me there should be any extra sugar left in any beer, after I mentioned bottle fermented beer. When I do drink more then 1 or 2 I also tend to be up for 5-6 hours after the last one and check my bg about every hour.
Before the start of my world, I used to be a beer gourmand. I brewed my own beer, I even had a “beer fridge” in the garage for my brewing habit. Beer is made from starches that have been partially converted to sugars and it is then fermented, thereby converting (some) of the sugars to alcohol. The end result will be a mix that contains alcohol, starches (carbs) and residual sugars. The level of each of these is highly variable. Some of it can be determined by just taste, but often it can be hard to know. With craft beers you really don’t know and it will vary from batch to batch. In most cases, a pint of beer of any kind will have carbs equivalent to a slice of bread. One list of carbs shows how things can vary. Unfortunately, you can’t really figure out carbs based on the style, or how light, dry or alcoholic a beer is. And even if you figure out the carbs, you still have to account for how the alcohol will affect you.
According to the American Diabetes Assoc. and most other sources I've read, drinking in moderation is fine. Moderation is defined as one drink per day for a woman and no more than two drinks a day for a man. Their warning is that alcohol can/will lower blood sugar. I used to LOVE beer. Like BSC, but never brewed my own. Four Peaks, a local brewpub, is right down the street from me (yes, I moved into my apartment based on walking distances to that pub). Anyway, here is the ADA's page on diabetes and alcohol.
http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/what-can-i-eat/alcohol.html
I need to get back into brewing, can't find a good weeheavy in my area.
Did you use extract or go Mash your own
I started with what I termed "instant beer." The extract in the cans which you used to make the wort. That is considered by most as beginning brewing. At that time, I brewed in five gallon batches and then put up the beer in bottles. As I did more brewing I moved to what is considered an intermediate experience level, where I bought grains that were previousaly malted or roasted and I steeped them myself and made wort. Advanced is when you do your own malting and roasting, I never got there. I did however get to the point of having a beer fridge that I used for cold fermentation (lagers) and then moving to kegging my beer in an old soda carboy with carbon dioxide.
ps. Is Wee Heavy a strong scotch ale?
pps. I really don't drink beer anymore, I've gone over to the dark side and become a wine drinker.
ppps. I'm still working on the moderation thing.
Wee Heavy = Strong Scotch Ale tends to be sweeter and maltier compared to other scotch ales. example SkullSplitter.
Oh no wine Like strong reds but could never give up my ales (strong ales usually but session ales at times). Started doing partial mash (extract + grain) moved up to full mash/whole boils. Made some great ales and small beers. Kids killed my brewing time but I am planning on starting again in 2011. Never got into kegging, but did make a 10 gallon bourbon barrel cask ale one time thanks to a friend who distills his own.
Been on a Brewdog kick recently as well as Stone and Heavy Seas, when it come to breweries
Moderation usually isn't a problem, when some of the stuff I drink is 10 bucks for a 22 I cant afford to drink to much.
The Guinness Draft cans have 9G of carbs noted on the box. I just bolus for it. A lot of times, I'll bolus 10-15 extra G of carbs at dinner if I'm planning an evening of binge drinking (*cough cough*) and drink to chase the insulin on board? Or eat snacks with it. I will experiment around w/ that number. I think the Sierra Nevada Torpedoes have > carbs than the Guinness but I'm not sure exactly how much. The Calorie King has a pretty extensive list of beers but I don't know enough to figure out if a particular variety has more or less carbs?
I will also keep a case of Bud Select 55 around, which is only 1.2G of carbs/ can I think? It's not as flavorful but it doesn't fill me up either so, over the course of a long evening/ football game/ basketball tournament, etc. heh heh heh...
I too like good beers, the darker the better. I’ve never been a big beer drinker, but just drink for the taste. Even when I was into getting buzzed, I would get too full on beer. Now I add 14 carbs for one dark beer with dinner, and even that can put me over the top blood sugar wise, I wouldn’t do more than one. Wine feels more neutral to me in terms of blood sugar. if I want carbonation I drink Prosecco.
likes Prosecco!
YDMV. I only drink craft beer as well. I found out real quickly that I do not have to bolus for beer - I go low later - although initially I may be a little elevated, I eventually go low, so it is my practice not to blus for beer uo front, and bolus for the food portion only, making sure I have eaten prior to consumption of my beer. If I need to, I will correct later but that is usually not the case.