primary fementer temp?

The room my primary is in is set to 68 degrees. But the little sticky temp gauge says 75. the pail does not feel like 75. How far off are those sticky temp gauges? If they suck. What is another option? Does fermenting produce heat?

Those things are pretty accurate, and fermentation can heat the fermenter up 5-10 degrees from the surrounding air.

what should I do or should I just relax?

I wouldn't worry about it at 75. Palmer says 74 is OK (not ideal though). If it was at 80 or above I'd say you have a problem, but you're barely over the high side of normal fermenting temperature.

Just to be safe though, get a bucket of water, put some ice packs or frozen water bottles in it, put the fermenter into the bucket and put a wet towel around it. Change out the ice packs every couple of days. This is a very effective way of lowering the temperature. If you want to make it even lower, place a small fan next to the fermenter.

It really depends on the yeast you're using (some yeasts do better at higher temperatures than others), but I think you're nearly 10 degrees too warm for most ales. You'll end up with some fruity off flavors (esters) and maybe some phenols (hot and band-aid tasting).

I'd cool it down to 65-68 ASAP in the manner described by Brew Dude. Or, simply place a wet towel on it and blow a fan on it. That will help alot.

Sorry to hijack this thread briefly, but this is along the same lines as my question, so....My primary (6.5g glass carboy) is sitting on the concrete floor of my basement. The concrete is always pretty cool/cold...do you think this keeps the carboy cooler than the ambient air temp there since the glass would be a good conductor of concrete floor temp and is sitting directly on it?? Right now fermentation is going pretty strong (1 bubble every 2-3 seconds) and the carboy temp is 68-70, the ambient temp is 65-66...I was expecting warmer carboy temps from the fermentation process...