Sorry to revive an old thread, but this was the #1 hit on google when I searched "getting sick from homebrew" and I had to bring some logic into this thread for the sake of people's safety.
People can absolutely get sick from homebrew!
People have died from drinking bad homebrew! Look it up! (mostly attributable to botulinim infection) I can't believe so many people on here said that it's impossible for homebrew to get people sick, some of whom are longtime respected members.
There are literally hundreds of different reasons why fermenting things can turn bad and become dangerous to consume, especially some guy in his kitchen...just sayin...
Yeast is capable of producing a LOT of things, depending on pitch rate, temperature, components of wort, etc and any one of these can cause allergic reactions in certain individuals. As yeast continues fermenting for longer and longer, the spectrum of chemicals produced increases, which is why smart brewers don't reuse or wash yeast indefinitely (commercial breweries I know say 5 or 6 primaries max and then they make a fresh starter.
Simple brewers yeast, when active, can cause symptoms in people such as farting which we've all experienced I assume, people handle it differently. And that's just yeast!
Talk about foreign bacteria or fungi and we can basically just say that there's a million ways to get sick from a bad batch of homebrew. IMPORTANT NOTE: it doesn't have to taste bad or be green and fuzzy to cause sickness in the drinker.
Moral of the story :rockin: Sanitation is important. If you think homebrew is getting people sick, stop serving it to people and make a new batch.
peace :fro: