Getting high is part of all mammals. Elephants removing roofs of clay huts to steal and drink booze in India. Dolhpins biting on Starfishes to get high on their venom. Reindeers eating Amanita Muscaria mushrooms to get a GABAergic blast.

It's all about those sweet neurotransmitters. Our whole body is made to use any kind of pleasure (external like food, drugs or internal like sport, sex or just getting your shit done) to be able to move on. Without pleasure, mammals wouldn't repeat anything. Why would they? Nothing would be fun at all.

So yeah, I believe you, that more crops were sown just to be able to brew more beer. I would do that too, even though I don't really enjoy ethanol. But friends and family do. When they're happy, I'm happy too :)