Time after fermentation

So, just a quickie here.

I suspect that my fermentaion has completed, not taken a SG reading yet since I don't intend to bottle soon. Plan on taking as few readings as I need, when I'm close to bottling, I'll take some consecutive readings to prevent the bottle bombs.

Anywho, I've my carboy sitting in a cooler of water. The water temperature has been around 60F. Does temperature matter at all for the remaining 3 weeks (total of 4 weeks in primary)?

Also, my recipe called for 5 gallons yield. I'm thinking I ended up closer to 4 than 5. I would expect this may make the end product stronger tasting? How would something like that affect my SG readings?

At this point I'm not worried about the beer, just wondering.

Thanks for all the help so far! Looking forward to many more home brew batches in the not so distant future.

1. Temperature is important throughout the life of your beer, even after you get it in bottles. You want to make sure your beer is never exposed to temps over 70-75 degrees or it will skunk.

2. In terms of readings it may boost your OG, SG, and FG readings but it should not affect your attenuation (which is what matters). What I mean is, your SG may be higher than it would be for a 5 gallon batch, but your OG would have been high too so your total attenuation should be the same either way. One thing you might want to do is cut back on your priming sugar so as not to overcarb.