A clearer explanation of how he is:
Gets up at 3 am for work.
Gets home, if he has nothing to do, at 2:30.
Most days will crack a beer right then.
Always in bed by 7 or 8pm, drinking never causes him to change this.
I dont know if he is a homebody or if the drinking rules this, but if he has things to do he will do them quickly after work. He is ALWAYS home by 4. He doesnt ever NOT do what needs to be done, so that he can come home and drink, but he doesnt ever spend any great amount of time out running errands and stuff.
He's an early riser and the type who doesnt sit around much, so he's always up by 7 at the latest on weekends. He gets all his errands out in the world done then. Maybe thats so he can be home to drink, I dont know. He's always done running errands by 10 -11 am and home after that.
He will drink starting around noon-1 on weekends.
On Fridays, he'll work and not drink until after we go out, if we go out that night. It never seems to be a problem. Latest we've been home is 9 pm.. We never do any partying, just dinner and a movie or something. He never seems jumpy or anything because he hasnt drank. But he always WILL crack a beer when we get back. Many times those are short lived drinking nights and he doesnt act like 'woohoo its friday I should get trashed!'. He'll have a few and we go to bed.
So, in a way, it seems like he doesnt let it RUN his life, but maybe that he has adapted his life to accomodate it in some ways.
He never cared if anyone is drinking at the same time as him or not, he still does.
Examples: some weekends I will drink with him. I never ever start during the day and never do until I know driving will not need to happen. Since he's started around noon.. (and is a morning/ daytime person) by the time I want a beer (7/8/9 at night) he's winding down and the drinking time together is 1 or 2 beers for me and he's done with it for the day so I drink 1 or 2 and he drinks 1 or 2 during that time and we both stop and the days over. So it isnt a big social thing we do together. I never drink during the week.
Ex: For a month or so his friend came over every Saturday to help him reside his garage. His friend wouldnt drink or would drink very little. BF would drink beer the whole time.
During the week I have none, he never asks me to, he still drinks.
I would say, yes, he IS an alcoholic, because its always present in his life. He just seems to have enough control to not let it control him in serious bad ways.