Is my beer infected?

This is my ipa, day 5 in primary. Temp about 24 degrees. Second ever brew.

It looks worse in the photo, there is a hop bag at the top of the picture but not sure about the other white bits. Theyre kind of foamy. Beer smells ok at the moment.

Should I chuck it away??

The white rafts look like yeast colonies to me. Did you taste it?

I'm assuming that is 24 celcius, 75F. That's a bit warm to ferment. But if it smells good cover it up and check back in a few weeks.

By no means chuck it.

Not tasted it yet. Ill try that tonight. If it tastes ok am I good to go?

Looks fine to me, if it tastes ok you should be ok. See what you can do about lowering your temps too as they do seem a bit high.

Dan said:

I'm assuming that is 24 celcius, 75F. That's a bit warm to ferment. But if it smells good cover it up and check back in a few weeks.

By no means chuck it.

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Yeah it smells ok. I tried to keep the temp to around 20 but not mastered that yet. I'm in a small flat with no room inside so needs to outside (not to mention the wife doesn't want it in the apartment!) so it's in a protected area in the stairwell. Not ideal

Yes. Fermenting wort can get pretty ugly looking on the top.

Are there any sound reasons you think the batch could be infected? Did you use sanitary measures? Did everything that touched your wort after boiled and cooled clean and sanitized? If yes you have nothing to really worry about.

Even if it is infected (which it probably isn't), don't be in a hurry to throw it away. Forget about it for a few months and you may have discovered something wonderful (or you may not, but you certainly won't if you dump it)

Jamesbeer said:

Yeah it smells ok. I tried to keep the temp to around 20 but not mastered that yet. I'm in a small flat with no room inside so needs to outside (not to mention the wife doesn't want it in the apartment!) so it's in a protected area in the stairwell. Not ideal

Click to expand...

Try wrapping a wet towel around it if you have a fan blow the fan towards the wet towel, the evaporation will help cool.

Are there any sound reasons you think the batch could be infected? Did you use sanitary measures? Did everything that touched your wort after boiled and cooled clean and sanitized? If yes you have nothing to really worry about.[/QUOTE]

Everything is sanitized. Have no reason to think it may be infected but only my second batch so prone to rookie errors!

Are there any sound reasons you think the batch could be infected? Did you use sanitary measures? Did everything that touched your wort after boiled and cooled clean and sanitized? If yes you have nothing to really worry about.[/QUOTE]

Yeah I sanitized everything but only second batch so could be probe to rookie errors!

Have faith, your beer will be fine. The hardest part now is to just let it sit a few more weeks.

Thanks all! Feel a bit better about it now. Patience is s virtue (I don't have!)