The advantage of Mr. Beer is that it is dirt simple. It can give the novice brewer confidence that he/she can brew a good beer. Once the written instructions are mastered, though, it seems that the quality and consistency of the beer could be improved by going beyond the written instructions, although it does add some complexity. Here are some things I'm going to try (in no particular order) and I'd love to hear other thoughts.
1. rehydrate the yeast. There is probably plenty of the dried yeast to compensate for any die-off due to pitching directly into the wort, but I've read multiple times that rehydrating is better.
2. use a bottling bucket. A bottling bucket helps by allowing you to pour off the beer leaving the spent yeast behind. In addition, you can mix the priming sugar into the bucket in bulk rather than each individual bottle.
3. froth the wort. Before adding the yeast, use a hand mixer (blades properly sanitized, of course) to induce a lot of air into the wort. This will help the yeast get stonger sooner before starting on the sugars.
4. cold crash the fermenter. Before bottling, placing the LBK into a refridgerator for a couple of days will cause some of the less desirable particulates to drop out before bottling.
Any other ideas or corrections?
1. rehydrate the yeast. There is probably plenty of the dried yeast to compensate for any die-off due to pitching directly into the wort, but I've read multiple times that rehydrating is better.
2. use a bottling bucket. A bottling bucket helps by allowing you to pour off the beer leaving the spent yeast behind. In addition, you can mix the priming sugar into the bucket in bulk rather than each individual bottle.
3. froth the wort. Before adding the yeast, use a hand mixer (blades properly sanitized, of course) to induce a lot of air into the wort. This will help the yeast get stonger sooner before starting on the sugars.
4. cold crash the fermenter. Before bottling, placing the LBK into a refridgerator for a couple of days will cause some of the less desirable particulates to drop out before bottling.
Any other ideas or corrections?