No really…
He brewed a Czech Pilsner, extract style. I wasn’t here for this. Two weeks later there is a layer of white “stuff” with green spots on top of the beer in his bucket… Me, I’m not optimistic about this…
Any thoughts?
Oscar that is mold. There’s no way that could have grown in two weeks unless it was cultivated and given oxygen.
Toss it. 
Was going to say it looks like mold. But bluesman beat me to it. How long to have it grow? Two weeks is a long time.
EEEEWWWWWWW :o :o :o :o
That’s what I told him… Oh well.
Mold.
But taste it before you dump it. It’s the best way to learn from your mistakes. 
;D
Did he catch a cold while brewing and wait on pitching his yeast? ;D
That’s like rubbing the dogs nose in his “mistake”.
OK, so now that we have established what I already thought…
How does one “get” mold? I need to tell him something he can learn from… The only thing I can think of is that he has the thing parked in a closet in the (slightly damp) basement, which may well have a lot of these critters flying around in it…but how they got in the bucket I don’t know, unless he opened it and they jumped in… will have to ask.
(Never had this problem myself, yet…)
Mold is everywhere. Relative Humidity levels are the main consideration. If he ferments in a wet humid basement there will be more mold than a dry basement. Does he have a mold problem? My bet is that he has a significant problem so mold remediation will be necessary.
The focus of your recommendation should be: beyond the mold problem
rule#1 - “clean and sanitize” everything that touches the wort after boiling
rule#2 - refer to rule #1
New beer category proposal:
Antibiotic beer!
Like rubbing the cats nose it it when he pees in the house
I shoulda read all the posts - tygo beat me to it…
Yeah, but it doesn’t work with the animals. 
The main thing though is to get a good strong dose of the flavor, which can help identify it at lower levels if he runs into an odd taste that isn’t quite so visible in the fermenter.
Anyone know how well Starsan works on mold? I ask because I keep a couple of gallons of mixed Starsan solution in a bucket and also have a couple gallons of mixed PBW in another bucket (identical cheapo Home Depot buckets). The lid for the Starsan bucket occasionally develops a few mold spots but the PBW bucket doesn’t, or at least doesn’t to the degree the Starsan bucket does. And the PBW is often put in the bucket when still warm so there is often heavy condensation on that lid, not so for the Starsan bucket. As a result, I switch buckets/solutions when I make a new Starsan solution.
Plus we have a picture of mold growing on beer which should be in the ~4.5 pH range, so that level of acidity seems to be no problem.
Also, I was just doing some reading on it and while I can’t comment on the validity of this article, they say bleach does NOT kill mold.
Precisely. I refrained but now that it’s out there… it’s only for the owner. Crate train, nuff said.
Hmm…while reading your post, I was thinking, well bleach kills everything. Interesting article though, and you’re right, can’t say for sure on the validity of it. It almost sounds reasonable because the chlorine evaporates very quickly, although I think it would leave more than just water. To be sure I think I would check with an expert, someone who does mold removal for a living. Although, during my last bottling attempt I used old bottles with definite mold spots and I bleached the hell out of them and they worked fine. I just always remember to use the coldest water possible when using bleach (and gloves haha).
the key word in that article is the word “black.”
meaning, it doesn’t pertain to brewing therefore ignore it
[u]The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)[/u] disagrees. They reccommend using a bleach solution for removing black mold (Stachybotrys chartarum).
and this:
Sure it’s not hop pellet residue floating on top of the krausen?