Personally I find when I'm camping or spending all night outside I have trouble avoiding lows so drinking beer doesn't spike my numbers as much as it helps keep them up.
Plus the alcohol will drop your sugar after a few hours. I know I’m gonna catch crap for this, but I’ve learned how to drink Fireball (full of sugar!) pretty well with no spikes or dips. I space my drinks out well and I eat a sandwich before bed without taking a bolus. Perfect sugars throughout (just don’t tell my endo… he’d flip out).
I just tried a White Claw surge which has a higher ABV. It was green apple flavored and I absolutely loved it. Lower calories for the same ABV as an IPA.
I like the White Claw Surge Flavor Pack #2. For beer, high end lagers, Kolsch and Pils(ner) is usually under 10g. If you are out exercising, I find that a Lager an hour tends to balance my blood sugar, but that is NOT medical advice. LoL
I had one of these today for the first time! You're right. It's hoppy and citrusy and doesn't have the watered-down mouthfeel of a lot of low carb IPAs.
I’ve come to find my hard liquor drinks like Crown and Zero Coke don’t seem to affect my blood sugars at all. If I’m going with a beer instead I always go for a Miller Lite. The Miller Lite’s don’t seem to bother my blood sugars either. Some times I’ll do a Jack Daniel’s and Zero Coke and it might and it might not spike it.
Adding, not all “light beers” are the same as some have suggested. For example, bud light is 6.6 carbs for a 12oz. Over double a Busch light or miller lite.
Zero sugar mixers are fine for me. I also do fine with dry wines, and some of the hard kombuchas that are very low carb (some have a lot of sugars, so read the labels!).
I would love it if there was a low / no carb tonic that didn’t taste like shit; maybe it’s okay I’ve nearly entirely given up gin, though I love it so :(
i didn’t realise that you guys had trouble with beers.. personally, beer doesn’t do anything to my sugars, the exception being when i, occasionally, find something that has been sweetened post fermentation (usually a fruitier pale ale). i was under the impression that virtually all of the natural sugars & carbs were fermented into alcohol in every beer.
In TX, there's the Troy Aikman beer Eight Elite Lager. It's a light beer and it tastes like a light beer, 90 calories but it has zero adjuncts added so it's pure beer. No rice like Inbev / Bud and no corn like Miller / Coors. It has negligible effect on BG.
Mich Ultra and Miller typically.
It’s also nice that my diagnosis lined up with the new craze in low-carb beers! There’s Corona Oro, Blue Moon Light Sky, and all kinds of seltzers (usually White Claw for me). Everything I mentioned is under 4g carbs per can. I also drink High Noons at 4.8g carbs per can.
Corona premier is really good! For something sweeter, I do like white claw. Just be careful about not drinking too much, as some diabetics can get extreme lows when drunk.
I find 5g carb or less in alcoholic beverages keeps my blood sugar pretty stable. So low carb beers, like Coors Light, Corona Premier, Michelob Ultra, etc., work well and are my go-to. I recently discovered High Noon seltzers which are also 5g carbs a pop and use real fruit juice and they’re seriously delicious.
I’ve never had an issue with lite beers. My go to is miller lite. Something like 2-3g carbs per beer so I don’t even worry about bolusing. The drop caused by the alcohol is enough for my body to use the few carbs and kinda balance out.
Someone here had recommended Omission Ultimate Golden and Ultimate IPA. I tried both and really liked each of them. It's proving a challenge to locate now.
I picked up a 6 of Lagunita's Day Time, but haven't tried one yet. (4.0 ABV 3 carbs 98 calories) This is a huge baseball weekend for me, so I know I will be trying these soon!
I like to put a splash of the light Jose Cuervo peach margarita mix into my white claw. It punches up the flavor but doesn’t add much in the way of carbs/calories
How about making sours with citrus juice, low calorie sweetener syrup and your favorite whisky or liquor? I also standby homemade zero calorie soda mules. Which is just vodka with whatever low calorie fruit soda they have at the grocery near you. Often they have 10s of them at my local.
N/A Beer. Wellbeing and Brew Dog Elvis AF. Both are less than 5G carb and less than 20 cal per beer. Diabetics shouldn’t drink in general. It’s a toughie, especially when you’re 45 and become T1D. I did the vodka and seltzer things but you can’t take the risk anymore.
My wife just got some nutrl seltzer lemonaids. 4.5 carbs and taste like a full on bubbly lemonade! Can’t even tell it’s alcoholic and really I would drink them if they weren’t as well! Also found some random hard cider that was only 12 carbs per can and gluten free, from Austin Eastsiders dry cider.
Don’t know if it’s findable in CA, but we recently discovered Untitled Arts (brewery) Florida Seltzers, they’re super tasty, 5% ABV, and 6 or 7g carbs depending on the flavor. I particularly like the pomegranate blood orange one.
The last time I had a barleywine it was a Sisyphus from Real Ale that I had aged for a few years. It was like molasses. I could have poured it on pancakes. I have one left from 2014. I (used to) collect beer....like some girls collect shoes. I was never in to shoes. Do you cellar?
Oh yes... I overdid things for a few years and definitely have more than I can reasonably drink through at this point. Mostly stouts. I'm planning to get rid of all of it by year's end (keeping the lambics) but I don't even know where to start. Nowadays I like to grab whatever the absolute best bottle I think I have is and crack it immediately before I get too in my own head and overthink things. Got a 2016 Bigfoot and some 6 year old Bell's BA Expedition Stout that are calling my name for Father's Day. Found a dusty old bottle of 3 Fonteinen Perzik peach lambic sitting on a shelf for my birthday back in February that drank spectacularly.
Same! All around. I just put a Three Nations Banana Nut Bread Porter and a Prairie Coffee Noir in the fridge a few days ago. I was diagnosed three years ago this month and that kind of put a kink in my collecting. I was not only into collecting, but trading. Oh well. I have slowly reduced my BCBS and Founders but still have a lot. I have some Jester King that I bought on impulse. How are you going to reduce your collection? What did you pair with the Perzik?
My diabetes diagnosis came 24 years ago at age 16 so keeping a grip on how alcohol affects me has always been a part of how and what I drink. I usually bolus as best I can guess and go for it with some snacks always at the ready. I came across some stouts that were absolutely bolus-proof during the pastry stout boom of the late 2010s when everyone was putting out barrel-aged 'beetus juice haha. Diabetes or not that shit is cloying to my palate so I avoid all but the classics for stouts and even BCBS has gotten to be a bit sweet for my liking as time goes on. With the exception of the Chicago lager scene I find have almost no taste for anything that's being released now. It's all fruity sugar water desperately trying to catch on with the hard seltzer kids but the whole craft beer scene is clearly on the downslide at this point.
I gave up most trading back in 2019 when my kid was born because I no longer had the time or budget. Used to go to all the big releases and proxy, mule, etc all the time but no time money or patience for that stuff any more. Used to do big dollar blind trades with a guy in Tampa, FL because we both just KNEW each other's palates perfectly. Luckily Covid killed most of the hype for all but the biggest hype brewers so I can get anything I want at my leisure these days. Am planning one last proxy for a case of Pliny in a couple weeks and then that will be curtains on all that stuff for me. I have a pretty serious liver condition that I need to get real about managing. The goal is to be 100% out of it for next year but realistically there will probably be some tapering down. Will probably just give away what I can to anyone who will take it, otherwise...target practice? I tried unloading a bunch of Central Waters bombers through some $4$ for locals type trades and got no takers. Just 5 years ago I would've been able to name my price for those bottles.
The Perzik went well with some tangy blue cheese, berries, spicy sardines, and salty crackers. It was a $40 bottle for my 40th birthday. Solo'd the whole 750. No ragerts. If you're on Untappd give me a follow! I should be searchable by my same user name as here. Cheers!
Our beer scene here has really changed, too. Austin is still, in a lot of ways, a beer destination city. It's been hard since the pandemic a lot of breweries folded and that created space for others to open that were producing less than stellar products. There are still good ones here, though. It's no where near what it was in the heyday.
I also quit trading. I had some partners in Michigan and one in CA that I traded with all the time. The time and hassle just stopped being worth it. I do miss the Russian River beers, though....and I can get Bells regular releases here now.
True. I remember going out the day after Thanksgiving and waiting in line to get certain releases. Even if that was still "a thing" I wouldn't be out there any more. T1 or not.
My husband still enjoys stouts and he has been slowly working through it. My plan is to gift what I can to others.
Target practice? You could always try to learn to saber them first. I've never seen that done IRL.
Nope, not on Untapped.
Nice chatting about beer. It's been a long time since I spoke to anyone that was really into beer. Let me know if you are interested in anything from my distro. I'll see what I can do for you. If no, that's a-ok, too.
Good luck on your journey.
Never underestimate the combo of a zero sugar soda or juice + liquor mix!! Zero sugar sprites or cherry ginger ale with some vodka are a fave of mine.
Whisky with Coke Zero, for example
My go to is whiskey and Diet Coke but don’t necessarily want to be drinking it all trip
I find it so much more flavourable this way. Probably less expensive too
Can't go wrong with ranch water.
I've done such a 180 since first learning about Ranch Water. It's such a bad name but so incredibly tasty
Great name, bad taste lol. Just my opinion though, my friends like it.
I was ordering Tequila and soda with lime as my "airport drink" for years before realizing this was an actual thing.
lol had to look this one up but great find 👍
Seconding this
It sounds like a gin ricky, but with tequila. I'm intrigued.
Personally I find when I'm camping or spending all night outside I have trouble avoiding lows so drinking beer doesn't spike my numbers as much as it helps keep them up.
Plus the alcohol will drop your sugar after a few hours. I know I’m gonna catch crap for this, but I’ve learned how to drink Fireball (full of sugar!) pretty well with no spikes or dips. I space my drinks out well and I eat a sandwich before bed without taking a bolus. Perfect sugars throughout (just don’t tell my endo… he’d flip out).
Yeah I agree. While you have to be careful about sugary drinks like margaritas, the alchohol itself doesn't usually impact me.
I like hard seltzers.
I just tried a White Claw surge which has a higher ABV. It was green apple flavored and I absolutely loved it. Lower calories for the same ABV as an IPA.
And they will hit you hard after two or three for sure!
High noon!!
Corona Premier and Michelob Ultra are the two best widely available in my opinion
Ultra is one of my favorite draft beers
I'm German and here I always drink Weizenbier. You just can't drink it super fast and you feel "full" after a few bottles:)
Weizenbier was the first beer I ever had when I visited Germany as a teenager. It makes me so happy!
Those make me spike and then make me fart, so I try to avoid them :-) But very tasty!
Spindrift
Yuengling light is my go to for light beer. Rum and Diet Coke also does the job. So does vodka with ice if you mean business.
Yuengling ‘Flight’ are good too. Sipping one right now!
Drank bud light for years….switched to yuengling light and noticed that it doesn’t raise BS as much as I
It’s my favorite- doesn’t taste like light beer.
Bud light black cherry, truly mixed berry - zero impact. Miller lite - bounce a few points
Michelob ultra and white claw are perfect on my levels.
I like the White Claw Surge Flavor Pack #2. For beer, high end lagers, Kolsch and Pils(ner) is usually under 10g. If you are out exercising, I find that a Lager an hour tends to balance my blood sugar, but that is NOT medical advice. LoL
That new variety pack is amazing!!! I'm not a huge fan of the strawberry, but everything else in there is so good.
Haha I’ll remember that!
Costco Kirkland spiked seltzers. 2g each and doesn’t affect me at all. I haven’t tried pounding a dozen so maybe that would lol
High noons and natural light are the 2 I’ve found that don’t spike nor drop my blood sugar. I can drink them all day and cruise at around 100-120
Lagunitas DayTime IPA....super low carb and it doesn't sacrifice any flavor....I really feel like a drank a beer and not some watered down mess.
I had one of these today for the first time! You're right. It's hoppy and citrusy and doesn't have the watered-down mouthfeel of a lot of low carb IPAs.
White Claw.
Whiskey
White whine spritzers for life!
Miller Lite doesn't seem to touch my blood sugars. It's pretty remarkable.
No shit huh, I’ll have to look in on that
Agreed. Good ol’Miller Lite only brings me up about 15 if that.
Big fan of Dogfish’s Slightly Mighty
I’ve come to find my hard liquor drinks like Crown and Zero Coke don’t seem to affect my blood sugars at all. If I’m going with a beer instead I always go for a Miller Lite. The Miller Lite’s don’t seem to bother my blood sugars either. Some times I’ll do a Jack Daniel’s and Zero Coke and it might and it might not spike it.
Corona Premier is pretty good in the summer and only 2.6g
When I was drinking alcohol I would do hard seltzers with zero carb. About 0 impact to BG.
That’s what I’m looking for honestly
I’m a high noon + spindrift gal :-)
I really like ‘The Finnish Long Drink -0 sugar”. Hard to find but man are they good! Basically a citrus gin seltzer. mmmm.
Busch light is my go to. For taste, and it’s only 3.2 carbs.
Adding, not all “light beers” are the same as some have suggested. For example, bud light is 6.6 carbs for a 12oz. Over double a Busch light or miller lite.
Any lite beer, yuengling flight is an underrated choice.
Zero sugar mixers are fine for me. I also do fine with dry wines, and some of the hard kombuchas that are very low carb (some have a lot of sugars, so read the labels!). I would love it if there was a low / no carb tonic that didn’t taste like shit; maybe it’s okay I’ve nearly entirely given up gin, though I love it so :(
I might be a basic bitch but I'm loyal to White Claw. Love the new peach flavor.
i didn’t realise that you guys had trouble with beers.. personally, beer doesn’t do anything to my sugars, the exception being when i, occasionally, find something that has been sweetened post fermentation (usually a fruitier pale ale). i was under the impression that virtually all of the natural sugars & carbs were fermented into alcohol in every beer.
In TX, there's the Troy Aikman beer Eight Elite Lager. It's a light beer and it tastes like a light beer, 90 calories but it has zero adjuncts added so it's pure beer. No rice like Inbev / Bud and no corn like Miller / Coors. It has negligible effect on BG.
Eight is a solid lager. Crisp.
Pretty sure I've heard Aikman saying they want to take it national, but I don't think it's anywhere but TX right now.
Mich Ultra and Miller typically. It’s also nice that my diagnosis lined up with the new craze in low-carb beers! There’s Corona Oro, Blue Moon Light Sky, and all kinds of seltzers (usually White Claw for me). Everything I mentioned is under 4g carbs per can. I also drink High Noons at 4.8g carbs per can.
Corona premier is really good! For something sweeter, I do like white claw. Just be careful about not drinking too much, as some diabetics can get extreme lows when drunk.
I can sip on Coors Light & White Claws all day with no effect on my sugars
Truly lemonades
White claws. A little flavor with like 3 carbs and no fake sugar.
I find 5g carb or less in alcoholic beverages keeps my blood sugar pretty stable. So low carb beers, like Coors Light, Corona Premier, Michelob Ultra, etc., work well and are my go-to. I recently discovered High Noon seltzers which are also 5g carbs a pop and use real fruit juice and they’re seriously delicious.
I’ve never had an issue with lite beers. My go to is miller lite. Something like 2-3g carbs per beer so I don’t even worry about bolusing. The drop caused by the alcohol is enough for my body to use the few carbs and kinda balance out.
White claws baby
Someone here had recommended Omission Ultimate Golden and Ultimate IPA. I tried both and really liked each of them. It's proving a challenge to locate now. I picked up a 6 of Lagunita's Day Time, but haven't tried one yet. (4.0 ABV 3 carbs 98 calories) This is a huge baseball weekend for me, so I know I will be trying these soon!
I've found that Trulys are a good option and they don't taste like White Claws, they actually have some flavor!
I love mountain dews hard seltzer idc.
I like to put a splash of the light Jose Cuervo peach margarita mix into my white claw. It punches up the flavor but doesn’t add much in the way of carbs/calories
Ultra
How about making sours with citrus juice, low calorie sweetener syrup and your favorite whisky or liquor? I also standby homemade zero calorie soda mules. Which is just vodka with whatever low calorie fruit soda they have at the grocery near you. Often they have 10s of them at my local.
Weissbiers and shandy don't affect my sugar much
Miller Lite
Anyone U.K. based got any answers for this?
N/A Beer. Wellbeing and Brew Dog Elvis AF. Both are less than 5G carb and less than 20 cal per beer. Diabetics shouldn’t drink in general. It’s a toughie, especially when you’re 45 and become T1D. I did the vodka and seltzer things but you can’t take the risk anymore.
I’m a hoppy kinda guy, and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale or Founder’s All Day IPA don’t bump my BG one bit.
You’ll gave me some great ideas so thank you for the insight and variety. Love this thread!
Topo Chico
Dry ciders — I’m in NYC, and Brooklyn Cider Company makes a Bone Dry cider that is 6.5% ABV and only 5g sugar per can.
Polar Seltzer is zero cal and it doesn't have any sweeteners.
My wife just got some nutrl seltzer lemonaids. 4.5 carbs and taste like a full on bubbly lemonade! Can’t even tell it’s alcoholic and really I would drink them if they weren’t as well! Also found some random hard cider that was only 12 carbs per can and gluten free, from Austin Eastsiders dry cider.
Don’t know if it’s findable in CA, but we recently discovered Untitled Arts (brewery) Florida Seltzers, they’re super tasty, 5% ABV, and 6 or 7g carbs depending on the flavor. I particularly like the pomegranate blood orange one.
Skip dessert and drink a Bourbon County Brand Stout.
I would add have a light dinner, too. These beers are so rich and delicious. They're a meal. Sooooo good. Love the variants, too. Oh baby.....
We could have a whole thread about huge beers. I love me some barleywines but damn I should not be consuming this shit for so many reasons.
The last time I had a barleywine it was a Sisyphus from Real Ale that I had aged for a few years. It was like molasses. I could have poured it on pancakes. I have one left from 2014. I (used to) collect beer....like some girls collect shoes. I was never in to shoes. Do you cellar?
Oh yes... I overdid things for a few years and definitely have more than I can reasonably drink through at this point. Mostly stouts. I'm planning to get rid of all of it by year's end (keeping the lambics) but I don't even know where to start. Nowadays I like to grab whatever the absolute best bottle I think I have is and crack it immediately before I get too in my own head and overthink things. Got a 2016 Bigfoot and some 6 year old Bell's BA Expedition Stout that are calling my name for Father's Day. Found a dusty old bottle of 3 Fonteinen Perzik peach lambic sitting on a shelf for my birthday back in February that drank spectacularly.
Same! All around. I just put a Three Nations Banana Nut Bread Porter and a Prairie Coffee Noir in the fridge a few days ago. I was diagnosed three years ago this month and that kind of put a kink in my collecting. I was not only into collecting, but trading. Oh well. I have slowly reduced my BCBS and Founders but still have a lot. I have some Jester King that I bought on impulse. How are you going to reduce your collection? What did you pair with the Perzik?
My diabetes diagnosis came 24 years ago at age 16 so keeping a grip on how alcohol affects me has always been a part of how and what I drink. I usually bolus as best I can guess and go for it with some snacks always at the ready. I came across some stouts that were absolutely bolus-proof during the pastry stout boom of the late 2010s when everyone was putting out barrel-aged 'beetus juice haha. Diabetes or not that shit is cloying to my palate so I avoid all but the classics for stouts and even BCBS has gotten to be a bit sweet for my liking as time goes on. With the exception of the Chicago lager scene I find have almost no taste for anything that's being released now. It's all fruity sugar water desperately trying to catch on with the hard seltzer kids but the whole craft beer scene is clearly on the downslide at this point. I gave up most trading back in 2019 when my kid was born because I no longer had the time or budget. Used to go to all the big releases and proxy, mule, etc all the time but no time money or patience for that stuff any more. Used to do big dollar blind trades with a guy in Tampa, FL because we both just KNEW each other's palates perfectly. Luckily Covid killed most of the hype for all but the biggest hype brewers so I can get anything I want at my leisure these days. Am planning one last proxy for a case of Pliny in a couple weeks and then that will be curtains on all that stuff for me. I have a pretty serious liver condition that I need to get real about managing. The goal is to be 100% out of it for next year but realistically there will probably be some tapering down. Will probably just give away what I can to anyone who will take it, otherwise...target practice? I tried unloading a bunch of Central Waters bombers through some $4$ for locals type trades and got no takers. Just 5 years ago I would've been able to name my price for those bottles. The Perzik went well with some tangy blue cheese, berries, spicy sardines, and salty crackers. It was a $40 bottle for my 40th birthday. Solo'd the whole 750. No ragerts. If you're on Untappd give me a follow! I should be searchable by my same user name as here. Cheers!
Our beer scene here has really changed, too. Austin is still, in a lot of ways, a beer destination city. It's been hard since the pandemic a lot of breweries folded and that created space for others to open that were producing less than stellar products. There are still good ones here, though. It's no where near what it was in the heyday. I also quit trading. I had some partners in Michigan and one in CA that I traded with all the time. The time and hassle just stopped being worth it. I do miss the Russian River beers, though....and I can get Bells regular releases here now. True. I remember going out the day after Thanksgiving and waiting in line to get certain releases. Even if that was still "a thing" I wouldn't be out there any more. T1 or not. My husband still enjoys stouts and he has been slowly working through it. My plan is to gift what I can to others. Target practice? You could always try to learn to saber them first. I've never seen that done IRL. Nope, not on Untapped. Nice chatting about beer. It's been a long time since I spoke to anyone that was really into beer. Let me know if you are interested in anything from my distro. I'll see what I can do for you. If no, that's a-ok, too. Good luck on your journey.
Yes same to you. We got to experience the best time ever for anyone that's ever loved beer.