Okay, InBev is huge — the world’s largest brewer by a comfortable margin, with a balance sheet boasting lots of equity to fund possible takeovers.

But as rumors swirl around the Web that InBev will try to take over St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, some skeptics are saying that InBev may have trouble putting together a $50 billion financing package. Tight credit markets and bankers’ newfound aversion to risk could be a problem, Reuters reports:

“If it’s that size, it’s a big ask of the market, with huge risk in selling down,” one senior banker said on Monday. …

“This is pure kite flying in my opinion,” said a second banker. “The banks involved would have to guarantee the debt for the bid to proceed and I don’t see that happening in this market.” …

“I can’t see how anything like this could get done without an enormous fee being paid,” a third banker added.

Meanwhile, Advertising Age weighs in on the risk to Anheuser-Busch’s storied brands if it were taken over by a Belgiun company operated largely by Brazilians. Recall that Anheuser-Busch has been associated with patriotism and American ownership for a long time.

A-B distributors and agency executives who have worked on Bud and its sibling brands have grave doubts that a brand as overtly red, white and blue as Budweiser — and, by connection, its siblings — would remain credible with consumers. … 

“It could be a disaster,” said an executive at one of A-B’s agencies. “It’s all-American above all else — the Clydesdales, all the imagery. It’s an enormous challenge” if the brand becomes foreign-owned. And there’s a lot at stake: In 2007, $8.5 billion of A-B’s $16.7 billion in total global revenue came from sales of Bud-family brands in the U.S.

The situation is made even more ironic by the fact that A-B has in the past been willing to play the patriotism card against competitors.

(Biz Buzz recalls that signs over the urinals at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Va. reminded visitors that A-B was American owned — unlike rival Miller Brewing Co., the signs helpfully pointed out).

We would be remiss not to mention an interview Biz Buzz had recently with Maureen Ogle, the author of “Ambitious Brew,” a history of the American beer industry. As the Anheuser-Busch takeover rumors picked up steam, Maureen admitted some of her associates would “fall on the floor laughing if they knew I was upset about this.”

Despite the Busch family not actually owning much stock, “The Busch genes are embedded in that company, and it’s really made an enormous difference,” said Maureen. She contrasted the Busch family’s charismatic weight and influence with the erosion of the Schlitz and Pabst brewing empires after the families stepped away. 

“Take (the Busches) away and you just have another corporate brewer,” she said. ”History has not been kind when families have stopped being the heart and soul of the company.”

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters agrees. The union represents about 7,500 Anheuser-Busch employees nationwide.

“We would like it to see (Anheuser-Busch) remain an American company,” said Jack Cipriani, Director of the Teamsters Brewery and Soft Drink Workers Conference. “It doesn’t seem that employees fair well - in our experience in the brewery industry - when foreign suitors buy an American brewery,” he said in a statement.