Beer is really anti-Paleo. It's made of gluten containing grains, and unlike whiskey (also made of grains) the gluten is not fermented away. There's at least a sandwich worth of bread in any pint of high quality beer!

Wine and brandy are at the top of my booze list, but I do consume other distilled spirits now and then.

Would it stand to reason that mead would be the most Paleo of alcoholic drinks?

I'm not a huge fan, but given that it's fermented honey and yeast...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mead

Best highball ever:

1 oz "white" 100% agave tequila, I prefer Patron Silver 1 lime wedge Top with soda water

If not that, then red wine; organic Argentina Malbecs are my fav right now.

Shoutout to the Norcal Margarita:

1 shot gold tequila - its yummy juice of one lime - it blunts the insulin response of the tequila and also registers in the body as an alkali load soda water - the carbon bubbles gets the alcohol straight to the brain

Beer is the worst, it's basically anti-paleo. Think of it as 'bread soda'. In fact, ppl used to drink a really thick, heavy beer for solely for its carb content to insure they consumed enough calories (as in 2k years ago).

Almost all alcohols have sugar in them, so it's about moderation and how much you feel like cheating ;)

Wine is OK, the serving size is smaller and it's less carb-heavy than beer.

Hard liqour is better (whiskey, scotch, bourbon, etc) as they are even smaller servings so less sugars.

My faves are scotch & wine. Usually I drink a glass or two of wine with dinner, if I'm being strict I'll go for a single or double of scotch.

On a hot summer day though, nothing beats a liter of lager thought! That's where the 90% rule comes in :)

For paleo reenactment you would want a fermented fruit or honey, not a fermented grain. This removes grain concerns. However, any distilled spirit could meet our criteria of alcohol without grain toxins- even if it was distilled from grain.

The other health concern is to minimize fructose (sugar) consumption with your alcohol because fructose and alcohol can have a similar toxic effect on the liver.

I think drinking a small amount of alcohol to relieve stress can be very beneficial. Alcohol may be bad, but stress is much worse. Of course, you could argue there are better ways of relieving stress.

Others have mentioned dry wine. I am starting to explore other fruit based alcohol. Dry hard cider is a possibility. I have some pear eau-de-vie (brandy distilled from fruit).

I know of one possible health benefit other than stress reduction- it is claimed that some alcohol is a "digestif" - aids in digestion. I just had St. George's absinthe (which is awesome!), and made with herbs- these could have a small beneficial effect digestive or otherwise.

I am not a heavy drinker. These days I might have 2-3 drinks a week. When I was a young man I often drank a lot more 3-4 times a week. Back then it was all beer. These days I still enjoy the odd beer, but am more likely to reach for red wine or spirits of some kind.

Since eliminating most grains, I simply find that beer is difficult to digest. More than one sits in my stomach like a lump. I find the same thing with foodstuffs made from grain. Both together is dismally unpleasant.

When humans were hunter-gatherers, I don't think they would have had much access to alchohol, other than rotten fruit. While it may not sound appetitizing, you'll find lots of evidence of various birds and animals getting drunk on such fruit. So maybe the closest paleo drink is wine.

My taste for anything alcoholic is near zero. During the first few years of paleo eating, if we had any booze in the house (which was rare), I'd like having one drink a night. Now, I could care less. I've had a bottle of white wine in my fridge for at least 7 months and I have no interest in it. I feel really good about that.

<< alcoholic beverages . . . can be viewed as an essential part of a contemporary diet. >>

Essential?

I'm not a teetotaler, and everyone's free to consume what they like, but it's hard to classify a substance that's toxic, even fatal, in sufficient volume as essential. There are also entire population groups that have a difficult time metabolizing alcohol in any quantity. "Common," maybe, "pleasurable," perhaps, but non-essential.

I've been avoiding alcoholic drinks lately (after finding out how alcohol is metabolized in the body). But in the past I've been partial to beer, bourbon and red wine (although not all together)

I was a whisky drinker for years until someone introduced me to good cognac... try any of the Pierre Ferrand varieties. Amazing smooth stuff, sugar is minimal.

There are gluten-free beers -- New Grist is sorghum-and-rice based, and it actually tastes like beer, as do the Green's gluten-free Belgian ales -- but I generally skip beer altogether nowadays in favor of red wine with meals and cold water on hot summer days.

White wine... eh.

I'll second the hard cider. For those former beer drinkers who think it is too sweet, you just need to find a drier one - try looking for Magner's. My husband - who is NOT paleo - has started to prefer MY cider to HIS beer - now half the time when I feel like having one, we are out because of him.

And if I occasionally feel like the hard stuff I am going for a really fine gold or dark rum. Something good enough to sip straight with just some lime and/or maybe a good bitters. No Coca Cola (sigh) - there's my paleo sacrifice I guess. Even if rum DOES come from sugar cane - in for a penny, in for a pound.

Basque sour cider, dry ciders from NY State, and ACE perry. I like sour and dry things...if anyone knows of any others I'm in the market to broaden the range of alcohol I like, since I sadly can't drink beer anymore. It was my "cheat" for awhile, but then I realized that my gluten problem was a serious pathology.

I don't drink very often, maybe once or twice a month. Since I start paleo my alcohol tolerance has gotten pretty sorry.

It was.....

1. Sierra Nevada
2. Sweet Water 420
3. Magic Hat No.9
4. Butt Face (at the RAM in Scaumburg,IL)
5. Mount Gay Extra Old Rum

Paleo did nothing for me aslong as I drank alcohol.....even one or two drinks a week. So I decided to stop a few months ago. I feel much better now.

Before going paleo my I was in so much pain I was self-medicating with with a few shots of rum just to get some sleep at night.

Since giving up crap I don't need it anymore, but one small drink a week is still a very pleasant indulgence. I prefer:

1. Wine. I'd better have someone to share it with, though, because otherwise I'm buying a bottle to enjoy half a glass.

2. Mead. This is tasty stuff. Honey and fire and nothing else. I never have trouble finding someone to share this with.

3. The martini. If you told me tomorrow that the combination of gin, vermouth and olives causes testicular cancer and face-melting I would reply with a smile and a farewell bow as I excuse myself from the human race. As far as I'm concerned, the holy grail was a martini glass.

   But it better be a really good martini.

Red wine. G&T (perhaps not strictly paleo but it doesn't make me as bloated as beer!)

1. White wine
2. Red wine if you're not sensitive

I've also been avoiding alcohol lately after being a very regular drinker for my entire adult life. I feel fantastic.

My first choice is red wine, and in the heat I have light beer, which is not as good!

I go for Jameson on the rocks. Once in a while a Red Bridge gluten-free beer.

quality beer! not PBR or Key light or antyhing like that. I know it's anti-paleo and frankly my dear I don't give a damn. I can handle a beer (or 2...or 3...hey, come on, I'm in college) every once in a while and do it guilt free. other than that, VODKA!

1. Single Malt Scotch
2. Cognac
3. Great wines
4. Craft Beers
5. Vodka Martinis

Not in order of preference.

Despite its grain-infested, non-paleo status, I still enjoy craft ale in the summer--especially good strong Belgian ale.

Jack Daniel's Black label!

I gave up beer completely and only drink wine every now and then. I don't really like wine. I can only drink the cheap, sweet stuff, lol.

As a treat for ourselves, the occasional Hard Cider (esp. if it is a local craft brewed one) can really make an evening special.

1. Jameson's, neat
2. Jagermeister, neat
3. Red wine, dry varieties
4. Underberg, though I'm phasing those out.

Come winter, I may have to indulge in New Hampshire's local hard cider (very dry) on occasion.

Living in Oregon, it's hard to avoid the Galaxy of craft beers round here, so there's the occasional indulgence 1-2x/month. Mostly, red wine. Occasional white wine and an Underberg. I'm thinking about getting some Cognac to finish off sauces for meat (been getting into the French-style reductions sans wheat).

I can't drink beer anymore, it makes me feel terribly bloated and gives me heartburn. I was drinking a lot of dry red and lately rosé wine but I'm cutting it out for a month to see if that'll lean me out a little more. Yeah, it's dry, but hardly free of calories and my liver could use the time off. Oh Malbec, I miss you, esp. that Crios rosé of Malbec, so good on a hot night... but I'll be back!

I tried a hard cider at a bar and it tastes like fizzy sweet apple juice. Bleh.

I noticed wine and ciders have sulphites/sulfites in them? Can someone explain these to me?

1. Vodka
2. Irish Whiskey
3. Bourbon
4. Tequilla
5. Dry Red Wine
6. Scotch
7. Cider(dry!)
8. good quality beer as a treat, rarely and light beer with spicy food like MD crabs or Buffalo wings. Be carefull when you order a NorCal Margerita in a bar! On more that one occasion they put Rose's Lime Syrup in it without telling me and that stuff is full of HFCS!

What about amaretto?