Have you played with temperature. I use to autolyse my multigrain breads up to 12 hrs in the fridge. Doesn’t moisture also have an effect? If I remember correctly my autolyse for the whole grain breads would be the consistency of almost a brick.
I have recipes that never fail. I'm trying to experiment and to understand where the boundaries are.
Discussion
I've done bread in the fridge a lot, but not whole grain yet. And I'm curious how the temperature affects the speed of the gluten breakdown versus the speed of the fermentation... I assume they both slow down the same, but that might not be right.
My next experiments will be with spelt though, because I seem to have a bit of a wheat sensitivity.