Long Dark Voyage to Uranus - Red Rocket Spiced Imperial Expresso Stout
Sawdust City Brewing Co.

Look: Pours black with a solid 2 finger rocky head. The head is a lovely shade of tawny with an undertone of red. After 5 minutes the head has pulled back to a 1/4 finger deep cover across the top with no lacing on the sides of the glass.

Smell: Coffee, with a spicey note of cinnamon and chocolate. Very reminiscent of the cinnamon red-hot candies.

Taste: Leathery and soft on the front end of the sip, tastes of semi-sweet chocolate and lightly creamed coffee. Mid sip the cinnamon makes an appearance, and things are still looking good. Things get dicey after the swallow. The cayenne peppers this beer is infused with rush forward burning your throat all the way down.

Feel: This beer starts soft and pillowy on the front of the sip, but when the cayenne peppers hit on the back end you are overwhelmed by a sharp burning sensation. It's not like a warming alcohol burn, it's a sharp too much cayenne pepper burn.

I will preface this with, I kind of expected not to like this beer going in, I don't like cinnamon red-hot candies and expected this to be built around that type of flavour. Since this is a Sawdust City beer, I figured I would give it a go they are one of Ontario's finest brewers. The beer met my expectations. So, the low rating is not an indicator that they failed doing what they set out to do, only an indicator of how I liked what they accomplished. I hated the burning cayenne pepper shock on the back end and therefore found the beer gimmicky and unpleasant. So, I give it a C+. If hot chili peppers in your beer is what you are looking for then you might love this beer.