Dealing with alcohol and fizzy drinks

By fizzy drinks you mean carbonated right? So you are drinking beer and malted beverages? Most alcohol isn't carbonated. There are many non carbonated wines as well as cocktails with spirits that you can try.

My favorite beer or beverage in that category is Saison which is a highly carbonated (fizzy?) and high alcohol content French style of beer that comes fruited and non-fruited. I prefer the fruited varieties; the non fruited tastes like an ale. The alcohol content is usually at least 9%.

I can drink your so called "fizzy" and non fizzy alcohol with no problems really. The only issue I have is with red wine. The tannins in it gives me diarrhea. Otherwise I can drink anything as before surgery.

I let pop mostly decarbonate and I don't drink alcohol very often and I always follow it up with water and salt to keep hydrated.

Thank you both for your replies. Yes I mean carbonated drinks. Is everyone more or less unaffected by alcohol post J Pouch surgery? 

I am unaffected post J Pouxh surgery except for the tannins in red wine give me diarrhea. Exception for port wine which strangely doesn't have that same effect on me.

I am with my ladyfriend on vacation in Maine and it's turned into a bit of a alcoholic weekend. She is a voracious wine drinker so I took her to Cellardoor Winery in Portland. Interestingly it's in a commercial park that also features a microbrewery (Bissell Brothers) and a distillery (Stroudwater). So after our wine tasting session at Cellardoor we had some cocktails at the distillery. Was very enjoyable. In Maine, blueberries, which are abundant wild fruit here, predominate in spirits (lots of blueberry vodkas) and in cocktails. It is the dominant fruit flavor in any Maine drink.

As a J-poucher and boozehound, I find that carbonated beverages are certainly tolerable (I'm no stranger to putting away 8 pints of strong ale, on a party night), but flat alcoholic beverages may go easier on your pouch.  

I have much less need to wake up in the night and go (stumble?) to the bathroom, if I stick to wine or cocktails.  Alas, I am a beer drinker at heart, so I get a lot of lousy sleep.  Hopefully it's your choice - the thing I love the most about my pouch is how much choice it brought back into to my life.  

I will also testify to red wine moving through you like lightning, though.  Which in some instances has been a good thing - I get lots of food-based partial blockages, and I swear that on at least a few occasions, those blockages were mitigated in severity by the red wine I also had at dinner.  Wish I had some scans to back me up on that crackpot theory!  

Whatever you do, play it safe, and pace yourself.  See how it goes.  Hydrate, and stick with people you trust, in case you get thrown for a loop and need help.  

I concur. Haven’t noticed an issue with carbonation, but more than 1 glass of red wine is a disaster. If I overindulge with alcohol and haven’t been eating food, I will also run into troubles (diarrhea). Also, because we dehydrate easier, I think it makes hangovers worse, so if I’m drinking more than A drink or 2 I make sure to also eat (esp stuff that soaks up the alcohol nicely, like starchy carbs) and hydrate.

With red wines, I believe it's the tannins in them that is causing all of these issues. I have been told that organic red wines might not have the same amount of tannins and may be easier for us to digest, but never tested that theory. I kind of prefer white wine anyway.

Thank you for your replies everyone. Lots to useful information for a new J Poucher like me.

Carbonated drinks make for a rough night and next day for me.  It’s a lot of gas and since I can’t pass gas without a BM unless I am laying on my stomach or sometimes right side, it’s not a fun time.  

I’ve had my j-pouch since 2016, and through quite a bit of experimentation I’ve settled on the below routine.

I slowly built up a tolerance for taking psyllium husk fiber capsules to help my GI regulate water motility in/out, and I take psyllium husk capsules every night to keep up the tolerance.  I also take activated charcoal capsules at night to control gas.

When I know I’ll be drinking (wine for me is better than beer as beer has too much liquid), I preemptively take one activated charcoal capsule and two psyllium husk capsules.  After drinking and before going to bed (stomach is rockin and rollin still), I’ll take one more capsule each of activated charcoal and psyllium husk plus 5 mg loperamide (2 and 1/2 pills) to slow the GI down and settle it a bit. (My colorectal surgeon recommended I take loperamide at slightly higher doses, 2-3 pills, at night and it seems to work for me.)

As far as carbonated drinks, I find that my GI tolerates non-alcoholic kombucha the best, soda not so much.

YMMV, best of luck!!