Interesting. I've been listening to Jamil's podcast lately, and it would be great if he could give me some advice on my specific issue.

On a related note, I now realize that I have more access to ingredients than previous thought. It looks like shipping from Singapore is the key. Maybe I can tweak the Rauchbier recipe a little with everyone's advice. I had previously thought that I was stuck using only the ingredients I have in the kit.

Looks like my options are open now...

Ok, here are the ingredients in the Rauchbier kit:

6.6 lb. Munich LME
12 oz. Carapils Dextrine
6 oz. Roasted Barley
1 lb. Smoked Barley
2 oz. Bittering Hops
.5 oz. Flavoring Hops
.5 oz. Aroma Hops
Saflager w-34/70 dry yeast

Bump...

Any suggestions for this recipe? I may be a little more flexible now that I can order ingredients from Singapore. I still need to use a Saison yeast due to the high temps, but perhaps I can make a substitution on the smoked barley as well. The fewer changes the better.

At this point I just want to use the ingredients before they go bad, and any drinkable home brew will do...

Can you source actual Saison yeast? I'd probably just cut the roast and smoked and go with the rest as is. If it just has you steeping the smoked, you won't be missing much in the way of gravity, it would just be adding smoked flavor to the beer, but not converting. The Munich in that amount may be interesting...

I realized that I worded this awkwardly... but that your temp controller will be turning electricity on and off to the entire fridge, so whether it is chilling will be dependent on the probe, and not on the set points in the separate sections (fridge vs freezer).

What type of beer are you looking for? Being that you are a homebrewer you have the option to brew whatever it is you personally want to drink. So let us know what you want to drink and we can point you in the right direction based on the ingredients you have. Now considering the fact that Singapore is roughly 75-90 degrees for the entire year, I personally would have a hard time drinking a large amount of Rauchbiers in that type of climate. It seems like more of a beer meant to be consumed in colder temperatures. That's just me though.

Ok, I think I'm following you now. The controller will turn the entire unit on and off as a whole, so if the fridge is set to 55 F then the freezer will be colder than that, but probably not freezing temperatures. Sounds like that would be too cold for storing beer anyway...

I actually live in Bangkok, Thailand, which never gets down into the 70s, unfortunately. I was referring to Singapore as the closest place I can get ingredients.

As far as the type of beer I would like, I would really like to brew a rauchbier (that's why I bought a rauchbier kit), but as I mentioned previously, I can't lager at the moment cause I don't have a dedicated fridge for it.

Since I am completely new to brewing, I don't know what my options are for utilizing the limited ingredients (or access thereto) to make an alternative beer style that can handle higher fermentation temperatures.

That being said, I have always preferred darker, and typically heavier beers. I love all styles really, but I have never been the type of person to drink a particular style based on the weather. This is especially true nowadays, otherwise I would only be drinking hot weather beers.