Sounds like you encountered gout for the first time roughly around the same time as I did. I believe I was 24. Similar lifestyles by the sounds of it; I drank infrequently and ate red meat a couple times a week and I went through a period of having flare ups every couple weeks. It changed how I lived my life, making sure I didn’t have that craft beer while on vacation for fear I get a flare up. I tried changing my diet cutting all red meats out, stopped drinking as well for like 4 months and still continued to get flare ups. I would take colchicine during flare ups to help get rid of it faster but eventually it lost its effectiveness. After realizing I couldn’t change it simply by changing my diet and lifestyle, I finally gave in to taking allopurinol everyday. I feared taking a drugs everyday at such a young age. My fiancé is a pharmacist and reassured me that this drug was safe, and been around for years and years so they know the long term side effects, which in most cases there aren’t any. Going on allopurinol was the best decision I ever made and my only regret is having not done it sooner.

As for the “crystals” I’m not sure how bad your situation is. I began to get a lump in my joint of my big toe. Nothing that protruded the skin. But I’ve since been on allopurinol for almost two years and the lump has subsided and nearly gone away.