I have been baking the recipe from the book for five months or so.
The first few months the bread was perfect, both in taste, texture but also in volume and "ears".

With that success I bought another cast iron set and decided to make two batches each baking day. I treat the dough as two completely different batches and mix and process each batch as if one different  batch.

I do not think I changed anything except for the ambient temperature in the small room where the bulk and full rise take place. I do bake two pans at once, but tried just doing one with the same result.

The bread tastes great but it does not rise as much in baking, the score barley opens and the crumb is much more uniform, less open and is very moist.
When I handle the dough it feels much less structural, when I shape the loaves they do not get that smooth and taught outer surface and seem to be more blobish.
There is much less form and shape retention. When it is finished with the final basket rise it feels soft and giggly. When I put it into the cast iron, even if I cup it in my hands before it place it, it oozes to the circumference of the pan and seems sort of shapeless.

I have tried to keep everything the same. The bread for the last four or so batches is identical so it seems that whatever is not the same is consistent throughout the batches.

I do mix the two batches in two different large bowls, one glass and one metal. It is odd but the dough in the glass bowl seems even more moist and more difficult to handle.

I tried to have all the steps take longer, mixing the leaven a bit earlier the day before, batch rise longer and final rise longer, same result. I went back to the original times, same result. Again as far as I can tell the only change is a two to four degree rise in the room temperature.

Help please, any suggestions? The first loaves where so magically perfect.