There's a few things going on inside your body that causes gout.
As nosco said above, its caused the build up of uric acid. This is the result of your blood having a high concentration of nitrogen dissolved in it. We ingest quite a bit of nitrogen locked up in foods we eat, particularly proteins such as meat. Problem is, meat has heaps of nitrogen and our bodies don't need very much of it. Normally its not a problem - our bodies process the excess nirtogen into a compound called urea, which is soluble in the the blood, and as the blood flows through the kidneys it is extracted, passed down to the bladder, and expelled as urine.
What happens if you get dehydrated and/or have high blood pressure is some of the nitrogen in the blood instead of forming urea can crystalise out as uric acid. The nasty thing about uric acid crystals is that they are like long needle-like knives that can stab at nerve endings causing severe pain. Unlike urea, uric acid crystals are non-soluble and are hard to get rid of once formed.
What causes the uric acid to form? Well, as said too much nitrogen in the blood (usually from meat but perhaps yeast cells too). Answer: reduce consumption of meat (and yeasty beer?). But that's only dealing with the symptoms.
Think about this: The concentration of nitrogen in your blood will be in equilibrium with your blood pressure - the higher your blood pressure the more nitrogen dissolved in the blood. Blood pressure is at its highest immediately after the blood leaves the heart. Blood pressure is at its lowest at the body's extremities such as the feet and toes. Here the relatively lower blood pressure causes some of the nitrogen to drop out of solution in the form of uric acid crystals. And that's why gout is commonly found in the feet.
The other factor is dehydration. Just as of a drop in blood pressure will cause nitrogen to drop out of solution as uric acid crystals, so too will the increased concentration of nitrogen in the blood by the removal of water. Alcohol is a diuretic - it increases urination. With standard strength beer, for every litre you consume you will urinate 1.2 litres. That extra 200ml is water coming out of your blood stream, concentrating it and causing it to be unable to hold nitrogen in solution, and out it comes as uric acid crystals. (For more on the diuretic effect of alcohol see:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/02/28/3441707.htm )
So what to do? First seek proper medical advice. But if it were me I'd drink half a litre of water for every litre of beer I drank. I'd sit with legs up on a foot rest and wriggle my toes every now and then to keep the blood flowing freely down there.In between times I'd go for walks, and perhaps cut down on the steak dinners a bit too.
(Gout was the gentleman's disease of 18th century England. Wars with France meant wine supplies ceased, so port wine (fortified with 16% brandy) was imported from Portugal. The average well-to-do English gent was pretty inactive, ate a lot of beef and mutton, and when he started hitting the port gout took hold of him.)
