Page 114 - Barbecue Chicken Made Easy

There is no way on earth the beer can escape the can and contact the flesh because the metal can blocks sideways movement of the beer and the beer never gets hot enough to steam and come out the top. That means no steam. Zero. Zip. Nada.
Here's the physics of how it works. When you insert the can, the beer and chicken become a single thermal mass. The chicken is a cool thick wet insulation blanket wrapped around the beer, so, contrary to myth, the beer remains cool and never ever steams. The beer is wrapped in a chicken coozie. The chicken is only 75% water while the beer is 92% water, and water is a great insulator. In the table below, an actual typical cooking session we did, you can see the beer peaks at 130°F, 82°F below the boiling point of water and 40°F below the boiling point of alcohol!
Minutes
Grill
Beer
Breast
Thig h
00
264°F
75°F
38°F
38°F
15
301
53
49
51
30
330
70
77
85
45
328
84
118
125
60
331
101
140
141
75
333
118
151
160
90
328
130
162
179
Starting with room temperature beer, you will notice that the beer temperature actually drops a bit at first because the chicken is cold. Since the center of the bird is cooled by the beer can, the risk of undercooking is high. You absolutely must use a digital meat thermometer if you are cooking Beer Can Chicken.