Beer Expert Talks InBev, 'Extreme' Brews

At the heart of the problem for many was the purchase by foreigners of a company that had become an American icon.

"[Budweiser] is going to get some backlash," Wells predicts.

Still, he doesn't think any product boycott would last long, noting that BUD, like the other dominant brewers of American standard lager, Molson Coors Brewing (TAP Quote) and Miller, has gone to great lengths to produce beer that appeals to the masses.

Of InBev's bid, he says: "They were actually kind of shrewd. ... They made a high offer, and then when [BUD's] board started to fight, they upped the offer."

In general, Wells says he's not too concerned about the state of the U.S. brewing business. He describes the craft brewing business as "relentlessly experimental," noting the growth of "extreme" brewing, in which high-alcohol content concoctions are made with a huge diversity of ingredients not normally associated with beer.

"In some ways the American craft brew industry has become an ark for endangered beers, rescuing and replenishing them," Wells says. "Yuengling makes a really interesting Porter."

The first step toward sampling such brews is typically through what Wells calls "gateway beers," such as Corona, the imported Mexican lager.

Once drinkers of the traditional American lagers have tried and liked imported lagers, they are much more likely to sample the plethora of ales, porters and stouts that are now being spewed out by the burgeoning craft brewing industry, he says.

It's clear Wells enjoyed the research for the book, although he emphasizes the very real work aspect of producing 100,000 well-researched words on a topic, however well-loved.

"How much can your liver take? You really couldn't be drunk and report the story."

So, in an effort to keep in shape, he "went into training and ran five miles every day so that at the end of the year, I wouldn't look like Norm out of TV [sitcom] Cheers."

Not that he's complaining much about this gig: "It will end up being the biggest beer-doggle of my career," he says.