Also you need to drink beer faster, because it gets warm and stale pretty fast. With scotch (and other strong alcohols) you can take as much time as you want.

Not beer, lager. Ale you can take your time over.

Just ordering Scotch wouldn't work for me: I love the stuff and, corrected for the alcohol content, I will consume it faster than beer. If you have the same 'problem', what may work is ordering water on the side.

I have/used to have this problem - which is why I gave up drinking. In fact as I read this, I thought to myself "yeah, that's fine if you have the will-power not drink the scotch very quickly and order 2 more in the course of your friends single bottle of beer.

I find spirits much easier to drink in rapid quantities without realising I'm doing it. Quite apart from the lower volume, the lack of carbonation makes the onset of drunkenness less evident

I think many alcohol drinkers would find it easier to drink 1.5 oz of liquor, than 12 oz of beer or a 6 oz of wine, especially if the beer is in a bottle. I think the main benefit here is that holding a different drink separates you from the people who are heavy drinkers. It would work the same if the group were taking shots, and you chose a sip on a beer.

I suppose it makes a certain amount of psychological sense.

so you eat out every day? Do you live in a developed country?

I go to the store every day; it's only a half-mile walk, and a nice way to switch from "working at home" to "evening at home."