The Beer Bloke: Bridgeport’s Café Negro is ‘after-work cup of coffee’

Yet another week languishing in the hot Arizona sun has begun to fry my brain. So this week we are going to discuss a coffee porter called Café Negro from Bridgeport Brewing.

Why not a summer beer you ask?  Well, this heat is turning me inside out, and I need a fix. So on to the coffee porter it is!

I don’t care how hot it is, the seasons are a-changin’ everywhere else and at this point I just can’t look another summer beer in the face. Of course, we should chat a little about the brewery first.

Bridgeport Brewing resides in Portland, Ore., and began life in 1984 as the Columbia River Brewery. Residing in the old Portland Cordage Company rope-making factory, they now produce quite a few beer styles and, as Oregon’s oldest brewery, have won multiple awards, such as Café Negro’s bronze medal for Best Hybrid Beer at this year’s Australian Beer Awards. Who knew Australia had beer awards?

As mentioned, Café Negro is a coffee porter and was formulated with a number of local Portland coffee roasters to produce a special java blend. The coffee is fused with the beer during cold conditioning after fermentation to retain all the subtle coffee aromas and flavors found in your favorite cup of Joe.

At only 5.5% ABV and 30 IBUs, you might mistake this for a run-of-the-mill porter but one taste will tell you differently. The coffee infusion during cold conditioning really brings out the subtle flavors expected in your morning coffee and blends them with roasted and chocolate malts to produce something truly remarkable.

A thick beige head welcomes you as the pint is slid down the bar in your direction and is followed by what can only be described as a great “after-work cup of coffee.” It pours a deep dark brown with nice lacing as the glass empties and has a mouth feel that belies its meager alcohol content.

Here is most interesting thing: The nose tells the entire story before you even have a sip. Roasted malt, chocolate and hints of caramel first catch your senses before a dry slightly bitter finish sees you off into your own private (insert silly television commercial here) dream world!

Great pairings would include tiramisu, trifle or that strange chocolate pudding thing your mum made when you were a lad. On ratebeer.com, the geeks have given Café Negro a score of 80 out of 100. I understand why as mostly everything scoring near 100 these days seems to be 10% ABV or higher with a mouthfeel the size of a Sherman Tank.

I disagree with the score and think this is a great session-able porter with as much flavor as anyone person needs in our crazy Arizona climate.  A quality craft beer from Portland’s oldest Brewery.

You can send comments or column ideas to England native James Swann, the beer buyer at Chandler’s Whole Foods, at kingjamesswann@gmail.com.