Bridgeport Brewing Company- Café Negro: Good To The Last Drop
Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 5:15PM | by Jason 
The last week almost killed me. I got hit with a wicked Viral Bronchitis and needless to say it put a damper on my Craft Beer consumption. Thankfully Wes had my back and stepped up his game to fill in while I was under the weather. Now that I’m feeling better I decided to head out to the garage and see what brew awaits me next. Ahh yes, this is one I grabbed a few weeks back after grocery shopping and mixed myself a six pack and two of which were Bridgeport Brewing Company’s Café Negro coffee infused ported. I picked up two because I wanted to have one to hopefully enjoy and one to review as I generally love coffee infused brews. I also choose this one because we have yet to review a brew from Bridgeport Brewing Company and they recently started distributing to the Chicagoland area. Café Negro is poured and ready.
Bridgeport Brewing Company classifies this brew as a Coffee Infused Porter and their website describes Café Negro as, “BridgePort worked with a number of Portland area coffee roasters to formulate its own blend specific to CAFÉ NEGRO that was then infused with the base beer during cold conditioning. The cold conditioning process helps retain subtle coffee aromas otherwise lost during boil and fermentation. CAFÉ NEGRO is brewed with the strong dark flavors of roasted barley and chocolate malt.”
Café Negro pours a chocolate brown/cola color with a 1 ½” light brown head. The aroma is a wonderful roasted coffee smell with hints of chocolate.
Café Negro is good to the last drop. This coffee infused porter has a wonderful roasted coffee flavor that borders on bitter but balances nice with the maltiness of the base porter. You get a slight bitter chocolate taste as well as a slightly earthy hop flavor that finishes dry and sweet. This is a really good brew but if I had one complaint, it’s a little watery in the mouthfeel. I would have expected a little more heft in the body but was left a bit disappointed. That being said, the rest of this brews excellence makes it one worth hunting down and enjoying yourself. If you are a big fan of coffee brew then this one will be right up your alley. My hats off to the folks at Bridgeport Brewing Company as well as Portland’s coffee roasters for formulating such as amazing blend to compliment this great porter.
ABV: 5.5%
Consumed: Mother Earth Pint Glass
Verdict: Buy A Case
