Introduction
Ok, it's time to look into all this excitement you see everywhere about putting a chicken on a can of beer when you roast it in a smoker. The internet is just chock full of claims. People are simply giddy with excitement over cooking a chicken sitting on a can of beer! Here are some examples:

"Why Beer?: So why does this work so well? First of all, you are adding a source of moisture to the chicken that keeps it from drying out. Second, you are adding beer. Now, more than the fact that beer is good, the yeast and malt found in beer reacts with the chicken, particularly the skin, making it thin and crispy while the meat remains juicy. " - from bbq.about.com

"The basic idea in making Beer Butt Chicken is that a whole chicken is shoved over a can of beer, then placed on a grill and roasted until tender. Though the novel idea tickles the fancy of most guys, kids, and other assorted persons with prominent funny bones, the superior flavor of chicken roasted on a beer can is what keeps folks making this dish time and time again. Beer Butt Chicken simply tastes better than the typical chicken parts grilled over coals. The meat stays juicy while the skin crisps up. The bird comes out bursting with flavor." - from www.yesyoucangrill.com

"The virtues of grilling a chicken vertically over a beer-can, which creates an extremely moist and flavorful bird, are disseminated countless times over the internet and cookbooks, but I've never let the phrase "beer-can chicken" pigeonhole this into a singular dish. Instead I use the concept as a starting point for endless experimentation to create some unique versions of this grilling classic. This time around I took a cue from Steven Raichlen and tried it out with cola, Dr Pepper (my favorite cola) to be exact, which resulted in a subtly sweet and spicy bird that easily held its own against those made with beer." - from www.seriouseats.com

"This delicious chicken dish is also called beer butt chicken. The method involves placing a can of liquid up into the cavity of the chicken, then roasting. The liquid inside the can boils forcing flavor up and through the meat." - from homecooking.about.com

Beer Can Chicken -- What Is It?
Well first of all, it goes by many names. Beer Butt Chicken. Beer In The Butt Chicken. Beer Can Chicken. Chicken On A Throne. Basically, they are all the same thing. You place a chicken on a can of beer so that the legs are down and the wings are up. The can holds some type of liquid and you may or may not add flavorings like rub, onion, garlic, herbs, etc. The chicken then sits upright in the cooker with the can and the two legs providing the support to hold the bird in the upright position.

Why go to all this trouble? Well, the claims are many. The bird will end up moist and juicy and delicious. The bird will be suffused with the flavors from the liquid and the spices and herbs you add to the liquid. As you can see in the quote from bbq.about.com, it is even claimed that the malt and yeast in the beer will somehow magically react with the skin, making it "thin and crispy." Well, if any of this is true, it might be worth the trouble. Trouble? Well, personally, we dislike dealing with whole hot chickens full of juice and grease. Getting the can of hot liquid out of a hot bird can be a challenge some times. (Yes, we know you can oil the can to make getting the can out of the bird easier, but it can still be a challenge handling the hot bird and getting the hot can of hot liquid out without spilling.) Frankly, we far prefer spatchcocked chicken since you can do all the hard work while the bird is cold. Once the bird is cooked, carving is trivial. But what if the beer can method does produce a juicier and more flavorful bird? That's why we had to test.

Beer Can Chicken Recipes
We searched the web for "beer can chicken" and "beer butt chicken" and lordy, you do find a lot of recipes. Of course, all the recipes use essentially the same technique of putting the chicken on a beer can that contains some sort of liquid and flavorings. The variations all have to do with what you put in the can. Here is a sampling of what we found:

• 1/4 cup of minced rosemary and crushed and minced garlic 1/4 teaspoon each of cayenne pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, dried oregano Ground coriander, cumin, and cayenne pepper equal portions
• Discard 1/2 the beer, leaving the remainder in the can. Add remaining butter, garlic salt, paprika, and desired amount of salt and pepper to beer can.
• Add onion, vinegar and garlic to beer.
• Open can of beer and discard half of it. Place, minced garlic, rosemary, thyme, lemon juice, and pepper flakes in it.
• Open can of beer, take a big swallow or pour out one ounce. Add liquid crab boil to beer. (Zataran's crab boil)
• Combine the chili powder salt, light brown sugar, black pepper, cumin, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper together in a small bowl. Pop open your cola and drink 1/2 of the soda. Make two additional holes at the top of the can with a church key-style can opener, and toss in about 1 teaspoon of the rub.
• Here in Louisiana we have been doing beer can chicken for years. We usually put water in an empty can with onions, peppers, a little liquid flavoring of your choice such as BBQ sauce, liquid smoke, soy sauce, hot sauce etc.

Experiment 1 -- How Hot Does The Beer Get?
The first thing we wondered was whether or not the beer got hot enough to steam or boil. One claim we read was that the beer will boil which forces the beer up and into the chicken. That's pretty hard to believe considering the beer is inside a chicken, and the temperature of the chicken meat will be between 160 and 180 when the chicken is done. So we placed a chicken on a can filled half-way with beer. Into the beer we inserted a Thermoworks 113-372-T PTFE Tip Thermocouple in order to record the temperature during the cook.

What we observed was that the beer only reached 170 degrees F by the time the chicken was done cooking. Clearly, the beer never boiled. We placed a pan of water on the stove and heated it to 170 degrees. At this temperature steam is just beginning to come off the surface of the water. Also, ethanol boils at about 173 degrees, so what little alcohol was in the beer may have just barely boiled away during the cook. But clearly, while the liquid in the can may have raised the humidity inside the cavity of the chicken, that's about it.

For fun, we did a second bird and recorded the temperature of the bird and the beer. This time out setup was a bit different and the beer did get up to about 185 degrees. Still, not even close to boiling:

Figure 1. Graph of beer and chicken temperature vs. time

To gauge the level of steam produced that these temperatures, we simply heated up some water and used our Thermapen to measure the temperature. We took photos at 170 and 185 degrees. As you can see there isn't that much steam at either temperature:

Very little steam at 170 degrees.

Some steam but nothing impressive at 185 degrees.

The level of the beer was not noticeably lower in the can after cooking either bird, so no significant amount of moisture could have entered the birds, if indeed that is even possible. We found a reference on the web indicating that the chest cavity is lined with a serous membrane. The purpose of the membrane is to essentially provide a smooth and lubricated surface for the internal organs to rub against as they move. The serous membrane can pass moisture through osmosis, but not directly. So, it is doubtful that any significant moisture enters the chicken by filling the can with a liquid. (For those of you going "Aha! Osmosis! That's what happens with brining and brining puts flavor into the meat!", remember that when you brine, the liquid and the spices and herbs are in direct contact with the meat and thus dissolved compounds can indeed be transported into the meat. However, with a beer butt chicken, the only thing that comes into contact with this serous membrane is a bit of steam.)

Of course, in addition to the fact that the beer doesn't really boil or produce that much steam, when you think about it, the beer can is probably at least three-quarters of the way up into the chicken's cavity. (Through the modern miracle of Whiz-Ray Vision, we have produced a picture to the right that shows how the can goes into the bird. Notice how little of the upper part of the bird is going to be exposed to any steam that comes off the beer. We "borrowed" that photo from The Virtual Weber Bullet web site, so thanks Chris!)

So only a very small area of the chicken near the top is even exposed to any liquid or steam coming from the beer. How is all that liquid supposed to distribute itself throughout the entire chicken to make it juicy? Seems that it doesn't. What steam there is actually exits out the top of the bird, hardly providing any moisture to the bird.

But, enough theory! Let's cook a bird and see how the results turn out!

Experiment 2 -- Beer vs. No Beer
Our next experiment was to test the juiciness/moistness claim through practical application. In other words, let's cook something. Does sitting a bird on a can of liquid produce a juicier chicken that a bird sitting on an empty can? We took two chickens similar in weight (only .01 pounds different according to the label) and cooked one on an empty can and one on a can half full of Budweiser. (The point here was to test the difference made by the presence of a liquid, not to test the flavor!) We used two Harris Teeter whole chickens, described on the label as "Fresh, All Natural, No Artificial Ingredients." We roasted them in a Komodo Kamado charcoal cooker at about 360-380 degrees until the birds registered 160 degrees in the breast:

The birds ready for cooking.

Two beer cans, one empty, one half full.

The birds sitting on the cans.

So how did the birds turn out? Was there any difference? Well, frankly, no. None whatsoever. Both birds were incredibly juicy. So we guess myth number 1, that the can of beer keeps the bird moist and produces a more moist result, is busted.

Experiment 3 -- Beer Plus Flavoring vs. No Beer
Ok, so the beer doesn't do a thing to make the chicken more moist, but what about flavor? What if we load up the beer with herbs and spices? Will the flavor make its way into the meat?

To test this, we repeated experiment number 2, except we used a dark porter instead of Budweiser. We also added 5 crushed cloves of garlic to the beer. We also added two heaping tablespoons of Dizzy Pig Jamaican Firewalk rub to the beer. Again, we roasted the chickens at about 360-380 degrees until the breasts registered 160 degrees F. We also let the birds rest for an hour to cool down after roasting. We then carefully removed the cans so as not to spill any beer/garlic/rub onto the surface of the chicken that had the flavorings in the can. Finally, we tasted all parts of the bird. The wings, thighs, drumsticks and breasts. Was there any added flavor in the chicken which had been cooked with flavorings? Again, no. A resounding "no!" Both birds tasted identical: essentially flavorless save for the taste of cooked chicken meat.

To emphasize how obvious it was that the flavorings had not made it into the chicken, we'll pass along this little story. The wife (yes, the wife who...) was out of town while we were conducting these experiments, but she returned the day after experiment number 3 with the flavorings in the beer. For supper, we reheated one of the chicken breasts as well as a leg quarter from the bird that had been cooked on the can containing the beer an flavorings. We served the chicken over plain white rice. We said nothing at the dinner table about how the chicken had been prepared. But later, as we walked Scooby the Wonder Dog, we mentioned to her that while she had been away, we had cooked a LOT of chicken, and explained why. We then told her that the chicken she had just eaten was from the chicken that had been cooked with the beer and flavorings. She then said that the chicken had no flavor and "You might as well have boiled it!" Precisely! That's worth repeating. "You might as well have boiled it." Myth number 2 busted.