“While a psychoactive beer might sound appealing, the reality was quite horrible. Ergot poisoning causes miscarriage, seizures and psychosis, and it can be deadly. In the Middle Ages, outbreaks called St Anthony’s fire or dancing mania made entire villages go crazy at once. Because rye was a peasant grain, outbreaks of the illness were more common among the lower classes, fuelling revolutions and peasant uprisings.”

Amy Stewart on why beer made with rye was not always a good thing
The Drunken Botanist
Algonquin Books (2013)