Why I’m Against Bulk Fermenting

This title is tongue-in-cheek.  Pizzamaking is subjective and we all have our preferences. 

By bulk ferment, I mean making a large batch of dough.  And letting it rest in large container in a refridgerator/walk-in overnight, and then portioning it the next morning.

I fundamentally dislike it:

1) You can’t monitor it while you’re asleep.  Or if its for work, you can’t monitor it while you’re at home.  If the dough doesn’t proof the way you want it to, there’s nothing you can do about it. 

2) It does not proof evenly.  The heat concentrates in the center, and it’s trapped because it’s a massive blob of dough with low surface area.  This means the center gets overproofed and overstretched while the outside is cold.  I’m all for uniformity; this means that one dough ball shouldn’t be vastly different from the other.

3) After you bulk ferment it, you need to let it sit out for another hour to warm up before you can even begin to portion it.  And if it happens to be overproofed, the last thing I’d want to do i…