Is my beer infected???

[steve1nh]

Two weeks ago I brewed a 5 gallon batch of Pumpkin Ale. All went well and I was very careful to sanitze everything properly. Last week I tranfered from the bucket to my carboy. Everything didn't go as planned as there were some issues with the way the tubing fit as well as the siphoning. I was planning on bottling tomorrow, but it looks like my beer may be infected. As this is my first batch home brewing I really need some good advice on this. I am observing a number of very small spots at the top of the carboy. Could an infection have been introduced last week even though I had a very active fermentation? Is the beer safe? Should I just siphon from the bottom and not worry about it?

Any help is greatly appreciated
Steve

 

[Revvy]

We're not brewing psychics...we can't tell if your beer is infected. You really need to post a picture for us to see. More than likely, like 99% of the time what you think is an infection is just what we call yeast rafts. Just yeast kicked up to the surface via co2.....

It is really really really harder than most new brewers may think to infect your beer. It is really rare for a beer on here to actually be infected. Post a pic so we can see.

 

[steve1nh]

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so here it is.


Thanks again,
Steve

 

[day_trippr]

That pic is about 999 words short...

Cheers!

 

[steve1nh]

Ooops! Also new to posting pictures here
All set now (I hope!)

 

[Revvy]

So where's what you think is an infection???? All I see is a few little yeast rafts on top of the beer....sure as hell it looks normal to me...

An infection on beer is a skin...and even a skin doesn't mean the beer is ruined....but the top of a beer is rarely free of stuff. There's always yeast sitting on the surface.

You like everyone else who usually posts like this are perfectly fine.

 

[diannotti]

I don't see anything unusual but I have only made 4 -5 gallon batches. What exactly went wrong during transfer? Also, out of curiosity did you take gravity readings?

 

[HomebrewMTB]

It's really easy to know if you have an infection. Taste it. If it's good, it's good! If it tastes like crap, give it a couple weeks. If it's worse, dump it and better luck next time. Your pic looks like really clear beer.

 

[steve1nh]

Unfortunately the tubing I bought to transfer from the bucket didn't fit the spigot. I had some spillage and cleaned up the tubing with tap water. I ended up siphoning from the open bucket into the carboy. I wasn't worried too much about infection at this point as there was a very robust fermentation with lots of CO2 coming out of the airlock earlier in the week. Again, this is my first batch and the round dots made me think something was growing in there that shouldn't be.

Steve

 

[steve1nh]

I didn't take gravity readings on this as it was a kit and the budget was a little short after buying all the equipment for my first home brew. The hydrometer is on my short list and I will be using one next time.

 

[Revvy]

Your beer is fine.

 

[Threewisemonks]

Hey I brewed a batch of wild cider. Meaning that I sanitized my equipment but basically ran 22lbs of apples through a juicer, topped it off with water, added 6 cinnamon sticks and a whole unwashed apple for the natural yeasts. There's a little bit of what I imagine to be apple gunk around the top but I can't tell if it's infected. I made it on 10/17/2013 and racked it on Halloween. It's been aging since. Just can't tell enclosed is the picture.