I saw this posted on another forum,seems like some good tips. I figure we can add to them if we learn something helpful....
Original Post

Since it is now after Christmas, there are probably going to be a lot of questions from guys regarding the Mr. Beer kits they got for Christmas.

I started off with a Mr. Beer kit as a Christmas present back in 2002, so this list is brought to you from my hands-on experience.
Even though the directions provided will often say otherwise, please believe me, these directions will give you better tasting beer.

Find a Local Home Brew Store (LHBS). They will be able to help you and get you additional supplies and ingredients as you progress.

1) Don't use Booster. Use another can of plain light unhopped malt extract instead. This can either be dry malt extract or liquid malt extract. In either case, it will be better than using Booster or Sugar. Either your LHBS or the Mr. Beer web site can supply it for you.

2) If you can get some better yeast, your beer will turn out much better. I highly suggest using name brand yeast, such as Fermentis Saf-Ale, Danstar Nottingham/Windsor, Munton's, etc. The no-name crap taped to the can is usually dead or weak at best.

3) Rehydrate your dry yeast in a cup of 90 degree (F) water before you pitch it. This will allow the cell walls to become permeable, and more of the cells will be viable. They will grow more and do a better job of fermenting your beer.

4) Cool the wort down to 70F before pitching the yeast, and aerate it very well. Lack of oxygen will inhibit yeast growth, and you will get a bland beer with off flavors as a result.

5) The Mr. Beer directions say to dump the boiling wort into the keg which contains about a gallon of cold tap water. If you are on well water, this may be asking for an infection. If you are on city water, the chlorine in the water will form chloro-phenols, which may be low-moderate in level but will be noticeable as a band-aid or plasticy flavor/aroma in the finished beer. You would be better off if you use pre-boiled well or tap water. Boiling will sterilize the water and drive off any chlorine. If your city uses chloramine, even boiling will not remove it. You would need to use a 1/4 of a campden tablet (1 tablet can treat 10 gallons of water) to remove the chloramine, or go with bottled water.
It is better to put the boil pot in an ice bath to cool it down, though.

6) Do your best to control the fermentation temperature. The good yeasts named above thrive in temperatures of about 65-70F. Going hotter than that will cause harsh fusel alcohols to form and they will make your beer taste alcoholica and "hot".

7) Give the beer a full 2 weeks in the fermenter. Even though the directions say 1 week is enough, that is really not true. The foam (called krausen) will fall, but the yeast will continue to consume their by-products in the following days. This is the time that the yeast essentially cleans up after itself. Without this time, you will end up with "green" beer that has several off flavors. Patience here is key. To help fight the urge, plan or even brew another batch.

8. Give the beer at least 2 weeks in the bottles. Keep them at or slightly above 70F so that the yeast will reactivate and produce the carbonation.

9) Always, always, always pay close attention to your sanitation practices. One-Step is a good no-rinse sanitizer. Star-San is better. Bleach works, but then you need to rinse. What is the point of sanitizing only to put non-sanitized water back on the equipment?

In later batches, you can try steeping 1/4 lb of crystal malt and adding addtional hops into the beers. This is an easy way to add more complexity and flavor into the finished product.

10. They say to use table sugar to prime the bottles - you CAN, but if you're going to the LHBS for yeast anyway, get yourself a packet of priming sugar as well. You won't use the whole thing - but you're paying .75ish for it, so if you don't use the whole thing, oh well. :-) Table sugar, if memory serves, might lend a somewhat cider-y taste to it - someone correct me if I'm wrong on that, please. It may not be noticeable, I know I didn't taste it in any of my early batches, but like I said, for .75... :-) (Also, can anyone offer suggestions about mixing the corn sugar into the beer instead of putting it into the bottles? How much, etc?)

11. If you're going to use soda bottles when you bottle, KEEP THEM IN THE DARK. There's a reason why a lot of beer bottles are brown. :-) Brown bottles are the best for beer, because they block out a lot of the light that will otherwise skunk your beer. Green bottles are good, but not as good as brown, and they put something in Corona so it won't skunk... so you can use soda bottles - I'm sure people here have - but keep the light away from them until you're ready to drink them.

Good list of tips for us NewB’s. Number 3 (Rehydrate your dry yeast) caught my attention. Has anyone on these forums tried this? I can’t imagine it would hurt, but would it really help? It may be worth a shot if it will make the yeast more active. Any thoughts on this???

That's essentially what you're doing when you follow Mr. Beer's directions by letting the yeast float for 5 or so minutes before stirring, no? I've only done 3 batches so far, but I've had NO problems with yeast activating. My most recent Oatmeal Stout was like a kids science fair volcano within 60 seconds of pitching at 80 deg. Two days later and the little buggers are still foaming up a storm in there...

After my first batch . . . I can add a few things.

** Make sure you have your ingredients measured out prior to starting. I was so concerned in keeping things sterile I did not open anything. I ended up making more of a mess and having things exposed for longer trying to stay organized.

** Keep a bowl of the sanitizer handy. The biggest issue I had was keeing eveything clean as I moved through the various steps. of course part of that may be that I was trying to measure things and stir at the same time.

Have fun . . . . the wort smells so good!

Now that's the truth! Drives my cats WILD for some reason. Then the battle becomes keeping the fur-covered turd makers out of my sanitized keg!

RAOFLMAO!!! Fur covered turd makers. Oh thats great. 3 dogs here and they were a PITA when it came to bottling. Finally had the kids get off of the video games and occupy the dogs. Next I had the kids under foot curious. My son loves the taste of any beer except highly hopped. Daughters don't care for the taste of beer (must have come from my wife's genes).

Space Ace here,.. you can put the yeast packet contents(sterilize scissor and outside of foil packet with isopropyl alcohol))it will evaporate quickly)(or keep a coctail size bottle of vodka handy for this purpose) into a pint sized zip lock bag, add 1/8 teaspoon corn sugar(priming sugar) then add 4 to 6 ounces of LUKEWARM WATER (preferably around 85 degrees) open the yeast packet,shake into bag, SEAL bag, SHAKE WELL, OPEN CORNER , SQUEEZE OUT MOST OF AIR. SEAL SECURELY . then place the bag aside onto a safe place that is ROOM TEMPERATURE, NOTHING COLD, NOT A MARBLE SLAB, OR ANYTHING METAL OR STAINLESS AS IT WILL DRAW TOO MUCH HEAT FROM YOUR YEAST SOLUTION. The bag should begin to expand after about 5-10 min as the yeast begin to feed. YOU have just made a home made "SMACK-PAK". Add this solution to the fermenter when you are ready to pitch the yeast. ...ACE.

Space Ace here, measure the total amount for ALL of the bottles ,Place into a saucepan , add 16 oz of water bring to a simmer, not a boil, simmer about 15 min to sterilize . pour this solution into a sterilizer quart sized glass measuring cup. divide the total volume by the number of bottles you will be using. when it has cooled to room temp ,pour the measured predetermined ammount into each bottle, just before you fill the rest with your beer.(this will allow you to leave the required inch to inch1/2 of airspace required for propper carbonation. You might want to use a sterilized glass 1 1/2 oz shot glass to add sugar solution to the bottles, just use the pre-determined consistent ammount. ACE...

Thanks ACE... Good tip. I may try on next batch.

Skierbri10, I recommend reading John Palmer's book "How to Brew"
The link I am providing will take you there. But the link specifically takes you to the Priming Solutions page. Use the nomograph at the bottom of the page...Match the temperature of the brew and the desired Volumes of CO2 you want and divide by 2 (Its designed for a 5 gallon batch!) With the beer's that I have brewed I generally want about 2.7 volumes of CO2 and I get that with 2.2 ounces of corn sugar. (Get a scale from Mr Beer!)

Read paragraph 2b
http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11-4.html

I would recommend buying the book...unless you have a ton of printer paper and two-sided capability and the patience. This might be a good project to accomplish while waiting for the wort to cool.