I like your thinking but am not convinced it's the way to go. You'd be better off controlling your temperature via, in an ideal (homebrew) world, building a brew fridge and then choosing your yeast to suit the flavour profile you're after.
I made a gasket from silicon tubing (i.e. a short length thereof) that fit snuggly over the 10mm copper tube and snuggly inside the hose. I then used a jubilee clip to ensure the whole sandwich was water-tight.
If it was out of date or had been stored incorrectly this wouldn't have helped but the same could probably be said for the kit yeast.
Yes but I have never 'proofed' my rehydrated yeast.
Kit instructions are written to make their preparation as simple as possible. Pitching dry will generally work but it far from best practice and will not give you the best results. When pitching dry, 50% will die on first contact with your wort as the yeast cannot distinguish nor therefore...
Did you re-hydrate your yeast before pitching? I ask as pitching dry will kill half of it upon contact meaning you'll have significantly under-pitched thereby making a stuck brew more likely.
Bottom line: Re-hydrate dry yeast.
If you used spray malt it's not all grain. That said, an OG of 1.010 is worryingly low... is that pre or post boil? Either way, if it's correct, you're in trouble. How long did you mash for and at what temp?
Yes. As you compress it the cross-section diameter increases so it'll easily fit over 15mm copper pipe. p.s. you can buy just the braid on eBay so no need to butcher a connector.
Saturday's impending brew will be #19. You won't look back.
There are a few good recipe's for Hoegaarden in the Recipe section. Pitty's your man if you want to brew with wheat.