First attempt at home brew. Not sure what to look for. My brewing time line so far is:
Questions:
Thx Ken
"Rafts" or anything floating at this stage sounds infected.
If you had good fermentation it's unlikely it will be harmful to sample.
Open one, see if you can recover the floaty. If its white / creamy color. I would sample taste the beer. If it's blue / black. Dump em.
Floating things in the bottle after that period of time doesn't sound good... Did you add some sort of solids like dry hops or spices to the fermentation? Could be yeast of course, but this usually settles at the bottom. Or did you shake it?
One way to be sure: try it. It should be carbonated and if it doesn't smell bad it is probably good to go.
To answer your question a bit more: 36 days in the bottle is usually( for a 'normal' beer ) more than enough time to carbonate the beer. After that it is ready to drink. You can put it in the fridge to cool it so it taste more refreshing but it is not a necessary step of the brewing proces.
This sounds like a likely infection. Be on watch for rope-like shapes, this is commonly caused by acetobacter. In the meantime 36 days is more than enough for most styles. Depending on style it might have been sitting on the fermenter for too long. I've come across floaters and spotty flask necks when an IPA was in primary for 5 weeks. After a tasting, it was clear it had developed a soapy flavor as mention by John Palmer due to long fermentation.
I don't have too much experience myself(only made 2 batches so far). There is usually a deposit of sediment and yeast at the bottom of the bottle after carbonation. Mine was noticeable after a few days after carbonation and bottling.
Like others have said, stringy parts usually indicate an infection.
