What did I just make by accident?
I was making dough for pizzas, for my daughter's birthday party. I was making enough for 6 crusts, so I had a larger bin full of the dry ingredients, and I managed to balance it poorly on the scale and ended up adding way too much water.
I didn't want to throw out that much material, so I put it aside, covered. It formed a sponge on top of a layer of liquid overnight. It smells... not like a normal bread fermented with commercial yeast. It's a little bit sharp, similar to sourdough starters I've made before.
I suspect I managed to have some wild yeast sneak in. I'm suspicious, cause I've never had it happen that easily. I know that if a culture turns pink, there's an undesirable organism in there. This didn't - was I really that lucky to get a sour culture going in a day?
No. But it is on it's way. It is still a sponge and can be used, it's floating because of the yeast and it separated because of the excess water. Give it a few more days and the commercial yeast will die off and the wild yeast will take over.
It will make great tasting bread if you carefully remove it from the water/beer and include as part of a new loaf or pizza.