I thought this was pretty good information. The person who wrote the article did a test with a 1 to 10 day fermentation. His opinion is three to five days of cold fermentation is best while over five days a loss of quality occurs.
From Serious Eats
http://slice.seriouseats.com/archiv...-long-should-i-let-my-dough-cold-ferment.html
"Fermentation is a fascinating thing. At its most basic, it's the act of using yeast (or occasionally other bacteria) to digest carbohydrates and convert them to alcohol and carbon dioxide (or occasionally other products, such as lactic acid). It's what puts the sour into sauerkraut and the bubbles in Champagne. It's what makes dried chorizo tangy and tea complex. It's what makes you forget all of this neat stuff when you've had a bit too much beer. It's also, of course, what gives a great pizza crust (and all yeast-leavened breads, for that matter) its light, airy structure and distinctive complex, slightly sour taste...
So What's the Solution? Retardation
Retarding a dough is the act of placing it in a cold environment after it's mixed in order to slow down the activity of the yeast. At cool fridge temperatures, yeast behaves differently, producing more of the desirable flavor compounds and fewer of the sour ones. It also produces carbon dioxide more slowly.
Texture is also improved: Long fermentation times give the enzymes present in the flour more opportunities to cleave proteins (a process known as autolysis), making it easier for them to untangle, straighten out, and link up into gluten. Gluten structure is improved. Finally, the colder the dough when you shape it before the final proof, the fewer bubbles are forced out of it...
three to five days of cold fermentation is your best bet for dramatically improving your dough's flavor, texture, and workability...
From Serious Eats
http://slice.seriouseats.com/archiv...-long-should-i-let-my-dough-cold-ferment.html
"Fermentation is a fascinating thing. At its most basic, it's the act of using yeast (or occasionally other bacteria) to digest carbohydrates and convert them to alcohol and carbon dioxide (or occasionally other products, such as lactic acid). It's what puts the sour into sauerkraut and the bubbles in Champagne. It's what makes dried chorizo tangy and tea complex. It's what makes you forget all of this neat stuff when you've had a bit too much beer. It's also, of course, what gives a great pizza crust (and all yeast-leavened breads, for that matter) its light, airy structure and distinctive complex, slightly sour taste...
So What's the Solution? Retardation
Retarding a dough is the act of placing it in a cold environment after it's mixed in order to slow down the activity of the yeast. At cool fridge temperatures, yeast behaves differently, producing more of the desirable flavor compounds and fewer of the sour ones. It also produces carbon dioxide more slowly.
Texture is also improved: Long fermentation times give the enzymes present in the flour more opportunities to cleave proteins (a process known as autolysis), making it easier for them to untangle, straighten out, and link up into gluten. Gluten structure is improved. Finally, the colder the dough when you shape it before the final proof, the fewer bubbles are forced out of it...
three to five days of cold fermentation is your best bet for dramatically improving your dough's flavor, texture, and workability...