Is my beer infected?

I am brewing my first batch of homebrew. I am extremely nervous about messing it up, probably more than I need to be. I racked my Irish red ale to the secondary last night and when I looked at it this morning, it had what I thought was mold on top. I looked closer and then thought it was just some foam. I think everything is ok, but just want to be sure. Here are some photos, let me know what you think.






Thanks and Merry Christmas!

looks normal to me, just a little co2 coming out of solution from the racking

I'm new to brewing myself, as I am brewing my third beer today (what a great Christmas activity). I do have some advice, however. Relax, don't worry, pop a brew, savor its flavor and enjoy the holiday while waiting for a reply from someone that know what he/she is talking about....

Looks fine... there are several threads that have pictures of infected brews.

Floaties are very common after you rack to secondary and absolutely nothing to worry about. I call them floaties but folks call them yeast rafts too.

Welcome to HBT and Merry Christmas!

Nope. At least not from what I can see.

Our first freaked out new brewer is it infected thread of the Christmas Season!!!!

Welcome.

Yeast colonies on top of a beer are so common that they have the nickname "yeast rafts." They are bouyed to the surface due to rising co2 being released from the trub, not just due to fermentation, but also changes in temp or atmospheric temperature.

Very rarely is the surface of a beer totally free of something floating on it.

It's also very very hard to ruin your beer ESPECIALLY if it's your first batch and you are using brand new equiptment, and you are nervous and hyper vigilant to follow all the directions about sanitizing.

Unfortunately it also means you are uber paranoid as well.


It's more likely an experienced brewer with equipment that has lots of use and maybe a few scratches or who's gotten lazy with their cleaning and sanitization that will get the infections. And even THEN that's rare.