CatholicPsychonaut
"Nature loves courage"
OK, friends, here's a question I've been scouring the interwebs for for days, and to no luck. The idea that the eleusinian mysteries were centered around some kind of beer brewed from ergotized wheat or barley malt. I've been experimenting with beer brewing along with my other side activities lately, and I am seeing very little experimental evidence to back up these theories. Has anyone actually TRIED doing this? And, more importantly, does the whole "poison part isn't water soluble" thing really hold up? I'm a dabbler, not a chemist, so I don't know this kind of stuff very well. I'd be willing to be the first homebrewer to resurrect the MYSTERIES, but I feel like I should at least be sure that the resulting brew wouldn't be toxic. Can any of you serious Chemists chime in here? Also, if this is possible, is it possible (or legal) to obtain a strain of ergot with which to innoculate my rye malt?