white mold yeast?

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gyeykal

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Hello all,
After reading some postings I have determined that it is probably yeast, and if it is not then its not bad.. you tell me please.
A thin layer of white, powdery/dry looking film on the top of the bucket. The layer has bubbles (mild) and dissolves into the beer real easy. I didn't siphon any off when I bottled it, but now it is at the top of beer in the bottles. it tastes alright, good even, my paranoia is keeping me from enjoying it. It smells fine, it is also the first time I've used peril hops (always(3X) used cascade). 1st time I used extract as well... after running by the man at the homebrew shop I threw in 2 cans of extract, hops, water and then yeast.... no boiling!! the I let it sit for way more then a week or 2.. more like a month and a half, the layer was on there, let sit for another 2 weeks the white stuff still was not growing (no fuzz) , can smell the alcohol, tasted fine so bottled it. Now the bottles have the same stuff..

This is not "white spots" its a kind of film, looks like mold kinda waxy.

should I pitch it? I drank 2 bottles and I'm still typing.
 
Most likely the film you are seeing floating on the top of your beer is a layer of bacteria and not a mold. Molds like akaline environments and since beer is acid (from the CO2) fungal growth is unlikely. I wouldn't worry too much since the bacteria is harmless and you don't have any off flavors. However, off flavors may become apparent over time so drink up.

I threw in 2 cans of extract, hops, water and then yeast.... no boiling!!

Your problem came from not boiling the ingredients before you pitched your yeast. The first batch of beer I made with my father back in 1975 was a kit beer that also had no boiling (cooking) step. The beer was a bit thin (well really thin in truth) but we loved it. It was our first batch and it was real hombrew! Beginner beer kits used to omit the boiling step because they figured it would be easier on the consumer because it didn't involve lots of pots and pans and there would be no chance of pitching the yeast at too high a temperature. Boiling is such an easy step though and beer ingredients really need high temperatures for so many reasons for it all to come together. Boil next time and you will get a much, much better result. No bacteria either.
 

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