Ferm. Temp. Question

Brewed my beer six days ago using Nottingham Ale Yeast.
The weather was good about 70 daytime temps and cooler at night but we keep the house thermostat set at 68 so I didn't worry too much about the fermenter temps.
Today the temp is up over 80 I got home from work and put the bucket in a pan of water. To try and cool it down. I know this is supposed to work with carboys but I don't know how effective it will be with plastic bucket.

OK here is my question: I have crawl space under my house with access through a hatch. I stuck a thermometer down there the other day and seems to be about 10 degrees cooler them the outside air. I was thinking of putting the beer down there in the day time when it's warmer.But I am a bit concerned about the temp. fluctuations. Another idea is to rack it into a secondary carboy put it outside under the carport in the shade north side of house and try to regulate the temp. with the water bath tee shirt trick.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks
D

Is your primary fermentation finished?

If not, I think that you might be risking a stuck fermentation by drastically cooling your beer since it shocks the yeast (I know that this is especially problematic w/Belgian strains). Therefore, it might also be a bad idea to be moving the beer around a lot because the yeast must adapt to all temperature changes (stressful).

I'd try to bring the temp down a little at a time and then park it in the crawl space if it's above 65 or the carport if there's not too much fluctuation and just try to keep it consistent.

Good luck!

First, is the beer done fermenting? Have you reached your target final gravity (not, has the airlock stopped showing activity)? If not, you should not rack to secondary. Was your houses interior temp 80? What was the temp like inside the house? If it were me, I'd leave it where you have it, in a pan of cold water. soak a t-shirt in cold water, and drape over the bucket, with the ends of it still in the water. then, take a fan, set it on high, and aim it right at the t-shirt, that will speed up the evaporation, and the cooling... i've gotten a 15 degree drop in temperature that way.

remember: RDWHAHB

Thanks for the input.
I think the beer is pretty much done fermenting. It's bubbling pretty slow.I forgot to take a an OG reading. And I have no idea what FG I was trying to target. But I just checked it and was around 1.01. The temp of the beer was 75.3 . I have a kind of hard time reading the hydrometer I guess I just need more practice. Smelled like beer looked like beer, but didn't really taste like beer seemed kind of astringent and sour. Well my plan is to check the gravity tomorrow if it looks the same I will rack to carboy put carboy in pan of water and try and maintain the temp @ around 65 till next weekend and then bottle it.
If it helps here is what I brewed
4 lbs lme
2 lbs dme (extra light)
1 lb 40L crystal malt (steep @ 150 1/2 hour)
hops: 2 oz northern brewers 7.5% boil 1 hour
1 oz liberty 4% flavor 1/2 hour
1 oz liberty 4% aroma 3 minutes
danstar Nottingham yeast

that astringency is probably just a real raw bitterness from those 2 oz of nothern brewer at 60 min. let it mellow out alittle in the bottle and that bitterness will soften a little bit. good recipe to get you started with brewing and introducing you to most of the concepts right out of the gate. The higher temp might throw your brew off a little, barely, but you'll be too preoccupied by that fact that you're drinking beer you made.

I had another 1 lb bag of DME I was going to use but I forgot to add it to the pot.