This happened to me in the beginning if she drinks wine go get a kit and make some. This helped ease my wife into it. Now even though she is not a beer drinker she samples my brews and tells me what she thinks.
You will learn more by doing 5 gallon batches because you will have 3 brewing sessions instead of one. He might be a beer judge but does he brew? He might not under stand the grand scale of a 15 gallon set up.
Reasons we could never find honey packets in the chow hall. Those mead Brewers soaked it up pretty quickly. Care packages were always welcomed. It is amazing the creativity over there.
Sounds like your learning valuable lessons early on. We have all had good and terrible brew days. I always keep a couple packs of dry ale yeast around. There are brewing checklist out there that help you visualize the steps and check them off as you go. A good brewing timer app helps keep your...
I just put beer line cleaner in a spare keg and push with CO2. I don't recirculate. Leaving the cleaner in the lines awhile is good enough I only have two taps, and disassemble them and clean them every keg change.
It takes a little while to dial in an all grain set up. Like previously said take notes. If your mash temp is a few degrees high just stir a few minutes with lid open. It is easy to panic in beginning but as long as you have good sanitation you will make drinkable beer.
Are you bottle conditioning at higher temps? I would put those cases in trash bags in case the yeast decides it's not done yet. No one likes bottle bombs.