Insulin is a driver for obesity, but its really secondary. The primary condition that precedes most metabolic syndrome complications is liver fat accumulation. When this happens, liver cells become insulin resistant and consequently start synthesizing glucose unnecessarily, which floods the bloodstream with excess glucose and subsequently drives insulin higher to sink it into peripheral tissues. Its been demonstrated over decades that the hyperglycemia of diabetes is caused by this liver synthesis of glucose, and not dietary factors.

Alcohol (ethanol) gets processed by the liver and enters the denovo lipogenesis pathway, becoming fat, which can accumulate in the liver if the lipid transporting machinery (LDL particles) are overwhelmed. This leads to Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (AFLD) and the "beer belly". Excess fructose consumption has been tied to Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) for many of the same reasons.

Some day we'll figure out why lipid droplet accumulation leads to insulin resistance. Some people think its tied to fuel selection and the evolved starvation response.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/87483

First you say it's not primarily about insulin, then you say that excess of glucose drives up insulin, leading to fat deposits. It's the insulin that directly controls fat deposits at th cellular level, is it not? And you do not have to have insulin resistance in order to drive your insulin up - just eating a pile of pastries will do it. You probably know more than me, could you please clarify?

Alcohol itself may not raise insulin but what about the rest of your hard apple cider or miller lite?

Miller Lite has about 12 calories from carbohydrates, so not much. Roughly the same for most red wines. Not sure about cider because I don’t drink it, but in general most of the regularly consumed alcoholic drinks have a lot fewer carbohydrates than you’d think.

With cider, mead, and wine you want to watch out for back-sweetening. Since many consumers prefer a sweeter product, the finished product will have additional fruit juice, honey, or other sweeteners after suppressing additional fermentation. Beer isn't completely immune from it, either, but it's less common.

Do you mean to imply that premixed alcoholic beverages aren't regularly consumed?

I suppose you mean the wine beer and spirits that people regularly consume with a meal, or some such.

But also, there are plenty of people who regularly drink one or more premixed alcoholic beverages.

I should have said “many”, not “most”. I have no idea what percentage of people consume wine, beer, hard liquor or mixed drinks. Just pointing out that the carbohydrate content of red wine, lighter beers, and straight liquor is not as high as you would think.

Ok, no worries, thanks for clearing that up.

I would expect fairly similar rates between cider and wine, since the yeast are metabolizing the sugars.

Edit: stupid autocorrect

Most of the sugars present in the wort (or juice in the case of wine or cider) are consumed by the yeast who produce alcohol and carbon dioxide as waste products

Alcohol does contribute to a fatty liver, though, which I think would then lower the glucose metabolism, which could also lead to more insulin being needed.