A guy recently told me that he got the gout, from quenching his thirst with beer. Not at the job, but he said when he was doing an activity that made him thirsty, instead of drinking water or whatever, he would save up his thirst for when he could have a beer later, maximize his fun! The doc told him it gave him the gout. I don't know if I would so much believe that, but I have a friend, my cycling buddy, that does a similar thing, I mean he will drink some, but postponing his thirst quenching until he can have a cold one in his hands, has always been a big deal with him. Coincidently, he also is troubled with gout, and by no means a high liver in other accords, pretty basic sort of fellow, but likes his beer.