Post fermentation temperature question

I tried to search for this, but couldn't find too much.

My beer was put in the carboy the first of December at night and started visible fermentation about 12 hours later and it seems like it is finished or close too. The krausen hasn't fallen yet, I am in no rush to bottle and I was just going to keep in in primary for a while so I haven't bothered with a gravity reading yet. I was just going to wait for the krausen to fall before taking the FG. Should I bother taking SG right now?

My other question is after fermentation is complete do I need to monitor the temperature as closely? It is in a cooler filled with water that has been kept between 62-64 degrees the entire week. I was planning on bottling the 19th if it was ready, but primarily because I will be going out of town for 6 days and didn't want anything to go wrong in my absence.

If it matters, I am brewing Coopers Brewmaster IPA with 2lbs of DME. OG was 1.056, no clue what it is supposed to be though, because the instructions were useless.

If you keep it at fermentation temperature you will be OK. I would say that 70 F is as high as I go for any beer when conditioning.

WBC said:

If you keep it at fermentation temperature you will be OK. I would say that 70 F is as high as I go for any beer when conditioning.

Click to expand...

That's what I was thinking. As long as the weather doesn't swing too warm I would probably be safe leaving the beer alone for those six days. Although, I live in Texas so you never know what is going to happen. I might just bottle before I head out of town to be safe if the brew seems ready.

I guess the other question becomes: Should I wait for the krausen to fall before taking a specific gravity reading? As of now I have only taken the OG and nothing else. I always read leave it alone, so I have...

There is no reason to take a SG reading until 10 to 14 days of fermentation has been completed. I usually wait 14 days for ales and 3 weeks for lagers. I want to make sure that the beer is conditioned and ready to keg or bottle so that I do not risk infection. The less you mess with it the better.