I tried to moderate many many times over many many years. And it never worked. When I first started drinking, three or four drinks made me feel great and I stopped later in the evening. I still had an off button. Then my off button broke.
I firmly believe that the reason that alcoholics cannot drink moderately is because our tolerance get so high and I do not believe once your tolerance gets huge, you're ever satisfied with any less.
Well then somebody might ask, well doesn't your tolerance go down if you take a break from alcohol? What's interesting is that when you start drinking again after a period of abstinence you pick up right where you left off. I don't even like to imagine it because I'm a nondrinker now but if I drank again, let's say, I would probably drink to a blackout right off the bat. I would not stop at one or two.
I have one story of mind of a time I was abstinent for a while and then drank again. I was not satisfied with two or three. I drank about 10 or 12 which was actually a little less than I used to drink and boy was the hangover worse than ever.
Keep reading lots of posts around here and you'll see that moderation does not work once you get past a certain point.
Hypothetically in a fantasy world if I were stuck on a desert island and still drinking and three beers washed up on the sand, I would not think "cool three beers!" I would think "oh my God, only three beers?!?!"