Is my starter infected??

I just sat down to see if my starter was done fermenting and I noticed little 'things' jumping up from the bottom to about mid-way up my 2L Erlenmeyer flask. Is this normal?? I've never seen this but I was using a 1L flask before.

have you watched a beer in a carboy going through the fermentation process, its like that old screen saver/flying through a star field, stuff moving around everywhere.
if the "things" are small and white its probably just some chunks of yeast or clumps of proteins.

Yea I've seen plenty of ferments...just normally its more of a swirling effect...not this jumping bean thing. I'm sure its okay but I want to be sure cuz I'm brewing up a very big, expensive beer and don't want to pitch infected yeast.

ok, wasn't sure. i'd take a sample of the starter liquid, it if tastes/smells bad, beyond being oxydized, i think then you'd know there was a problem, otherwise, sorry can't help you more, haven't had the jumping bean thing go on for me before.

I smelled it and it just smells like crappy beer with no hops...kinda cidery I guess. I've never had an infection before but I got worried cuz this time when i was stirring up the starter it foamed up and out of the stopper. Maybe I'm just being paranoid. Also, the yeast is Dry English Ale which has very high attenuation. You might be right that it is just very active yeast.

Were you sanitary when making the starter? If so, don't worry about an infection. They're actually very rare and quite hard to get. I believe that you are just seeing a colony of yeast in your starter. As long as it passes the smell test, you should be good to go. Those yeast are going to multiply quickly once they hit your wort and you should be golden. Best of luck...

okay guys. Thanks for the help. Thats why I love this forum. Well, brewing up the barley wine this saturday. 1.124 OG!! Woohoo!!!!

I'd second what rsmith179 said. Think of it as a competition between your yeast and anything else that's trying to get a foothold in there. If you start with a wyeast or similar yeast packet you're rarely going to get an infection.

I'd like to jump on this thread with my question. I did a starter and after about 48 hours there were little off white clusters at the surface. I swirled the starter and they dissipated. Would those just be some cultures that floated to the top for whatever reason? They'd come back after a little while.

The yeast I used was white labs Edinburgh, which has is a medium flocculating yeast.