Goatsmoker has become one of Holy Goat’s most well-known and regarded beers, with the 2024 iteration available now. Here, Johnny Horn explains how that beer came to be under its original guise – Smoke Monster.

Smoke monster is a powerful roast forward imperial stout utilising smoked malt as the entirety of its base malt.
Whilst this might sound like it would be too smoky, Weyermann rauchmalt is smoked with beech which is not so intense as to overpower a massive beer like an imperial stout.

In fact, it balances it quite nicely. Other smoked malts can lend interesting characteristics, for example, oak smoked wheat is a little woodsier and more intense.

Peated malt on the other hand, can be quite overpowering and the phenolic character does not always meld as easily into the base beer. 

Layering various colours of crystal and chocolate malts, helps to create deep complex flavours with the black malt laying the deepest layer of ashy burnt flavour, which is perfectly suited to this beer.

A blend of muscovado and demerara sugars will help to achieve the desired OG whilst adding rummy raisiny flavours.

The mash temperature should be  towards the higher end of scale here, as the heavy use of sugars to gain gravity points will otherwise also dry the beer out too much.