I'm still not convinced the beer butt is busted.
SOP when using a smoker is to put a pan of liquid (water, beer, whatever) below the meat. I seldom run my smoker over 230 deg F and I've never observed the liquid boiling, but it keeps the humidity high so that the meat doesn't dry out during a multi-hour smoke. Water doesn't have to boil to humidify the air, and the sittin chicken base is ~4 times the area of a beer can so it'll be absorbing more heat. Then again, I'm looking at it from the point of view of a 4+ hour 230 F smoke rather than at hour at 350 F.
Next time I smoke a chicken, I'll do before and after measurements of the liquid in the sittin chicken (I do see value in starting out with hot water (or beer) instead of stuff out of the fridge).
BTW, first time I had a beer butt chicken, the lady (a relative) that prepared it was a cook at a nice restaurant so I figured she knew what she was doing (and it was fantastic). Then again, we were staying at a ski area at 10,000 ft. and she had it in the oven for several hours (no idea at what temp) - if the beer got to 180+F it was probably boiling
