[Actual interaction at Pyramid Brewing during my company’s happy hour. They don’t serve liquor]
Me (to Bartender): Hi – Can I have a pinot grigio please?
Random Barfly: You came to a brewery and order wine?
Me: Yep! (Walks away rolling eyes)
When I started keto 7 months ago there was one thing I was sad to give up and knew I couldn’t replicate or keto-fy: Beer. I used to love beer. Specifically dark beers that feel like you’re eating bread. The most calorific and carby of beers of course :). The ones with the strongest flavor and the most history. I specifically love ordering local beers of the country and city I’m in while experiencing that culture – like somehow I could taste the essence of a place in their beer.
After mourning the loss of beer and consoling myself with just taking the smallest of sips of my partner’s to know the taste over the last 7 months I’ve come to a revelation: I no longer miss beer. I prefer the taste of beer over wine, most likely because it seems to have a wider range of flavors and I thrive on variety. However, the thought of drinking an entire pint of beer is not interesting to me. Before I started keto I would usually get flights of beer, wine or anything if they were available. I would love that I could try many different things and didn’t have to finish a large amount of anything specific.
Somehow I’ve lost my beer addiction. I’m totally fine with small sips and then going back to my vodka soda. I don’t know why that is. Maybe because I know how the beer will make me feel (I had a sip of a beer that turned out to have molasses in it and got really sick) or maybe it’s because I don’t really care about finishing a whole pint – I just want to know what it tastes like and can know that from a sip. Or maybe it’s because I know if I have a dark beer that I like I would already be over my carb limit and unable to have delicious veggies or fruit the rest of the day if I want to stick to my carb count. I’m not sure what it is, but I’m happy about it. Let’s see what else changes.