Hello, I'm a new brewer and just stashed away my first batch to ferment. However, I noticed some orange foam collecting on top, which may be the yeast? I'm not sure if I should tamper with it, as it has been in the airlock for about 7 hours so far.

What do you guys think? I followed a rather simple method to brew, boiled up some water and added some coopers extract and dextrose, poured it into the carboy and added yeast.

Here's a picture.

It looks fine, it's probably just some krausen. Ale yeast is known as a top fermenting yeast because when it ferments, it collects at the top in a big mass called a krausen. It appears this is the start of that, so you should be fine.

Out of curiosity, what did you do for sanitation?

I used some "Star Sand" solution, and hot water to clean everything.

UPDATE 24 hours the water seal has started bubbling, and it's starting to stink.

Looks fine to me! You've got beer brewing, my friend!

Awesome. Thanks for the reassurance.

It's starting to lighten up a bit. - 5 days of fermenting.

you'll see it continue to clear up quite a bit over the net few days too

Devon wrote:
you'll see it continue to clear up quite a bit over the net few days too

Yup. That's called the yeast floculating out of solution. It means they're finishing up fermentation. Once your gravity is steady for a few days in a row, and it's as low as it's supposed to go, you're goot to bottle.