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I typically see efficiency's in the mid to upper 50's when targeting 1.075+ OG's, so this doesn't look too bad. Mash efficiency tends to go down pretty rapidly once OG's start getting high, thus hurting your overall efficiency. I would recommend using as much as 10% sugar when aiming for an OG...

Got a 45 on a Milk Stout recently and it didn't place.

I was really worried about this when I first started ordering yeast online and living in Florida. Out of Dozens of vials of white labs yeast and several shipments sitting over weekends, I've never had yeast arrive dead. I would definitely recommend making a starter because the viability probably...

I'm no expert on infections, but it's possible this could just be dead yeast. I've had batches that looked similar to this before but tasted and smelled fine and were not infected or moldy, it was simply just dead yeast. I would recommend kegging it, but not racking the liquid on top. You'll...

If you dry hop in secondary or after the beer has finished fermentation, you shouldn't experience any blowoff issues. I just dry hop in primary, typically after allowing 1 week for fermentation. I also make yeast starters so fermentation is typically over after 5-6 days. I would recommend...

I've had infected commercial beers before, but it's pretty rare, especially from larger brewery's. It could be an age issue, does the bottle have a date of any sort on it?

I open the 1lb pouch and pour it into a tupperware and put in the cupboard with my other dry foods. I have yet to have an issue with it, and it generally sits there for 6-8 weeks before opening a new pouch.

It probably isn't done yet, but you should still take a gravity reading to be sure. If it dropped out of suspension from shock due to the temperature change, you could try shaking it up a bit and see if that works. If you still don't see any activity in the next 36-48hours, it could have died...

The water temperature and the water used shouldn't be the cause of your problem here. I would agree that the crush was probably finer than it should have been. I personally have never seen a completely stuck sparge like that before, even when there's 10-15% flaked grains in my grain bill...

I don't use a plate chiller myself, but I wouldn't be too worried about the break material, it will settle out in primary and shouldn't have any effect on your beer.

Well it's certainly possible you achieved 80+% mash efficiency, which would be better than the probably 75% or so estimated in beersmith, so that would account for a few points. You should probably have slightly more volume in your kettle too, but 7 gallons sounds about right. Hydrometers can be...

Not sure if you're treating your water or not, but adding too many sulfates (gypsum,epsom salt) to your water can cause more of a rougher/harsher bitterness. First wort hopping, as was mentioned several times already, will definitely provide a smoother bitterness, but I would also think about...

You should definitely read "Brewing Better Beer" by Gordon Strong. Great resource for homebrewers of all experience levels. It doesn't deal with recipe formulation or individual ingredients as much as some other texts, but it pretty much touches on all aspects of brewing and in my opinion is a...