what kind of recipe did you come up with? I've been wanting to do the same thing. best i can figure is something like an imperial porter with more hoppyness(30 IBU) and melanin in the secondary. the melanin wouldnt adulterate the flavor hardly at proper ratios. also i want to add valerian root...
I think the perceived improvement of hop utilization may just fall into the category with marijuana or honey. As scientists we can observe these things in great detail but the difference lies on a level that is not possible to mimic or quantify.
never had that happen but since you didn't open the carboy until it had fermented the alcohol should've provided more than sufficient buffering from errant bacteria
should just come bac on its own. I had something similar happen when my heater broke and it came back fine like 3 days later but mine only went down to~40f