Beer anthropologist Alan Eames dies

NEW YORK, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- Alan D. Eames, who traveled the world as a self-proclaimed beer anthropologist, has died of respiratory failure at his home in Vermont.

He was 59.

The New York Times said Eames, who died Feb. 10, had a reputation as "the Indiana Jones of beer" who crawled into Egyptian tombs and traveled the Amazon in search of the history of the brew.

He was the author of seven books, including "The Secret Life of Beer," and made numerous speeches at colleges and other institutions, the newspaper said.

Eames, son of a Harvard-trained anthropologist, was the founding director of the American Museum of Brewing History and Fine Arts in Fort Mitchell, Ky., and a contributor to the "Encyclopedia of Beer."