Herb hopfiger, eher milder Antrunk. Mild hopfig, getreidig, sehr süffig. Mild bitter, vollmundig. 11/11/11/10//11

Rauchiger, deutlich würziger Antrunk. Etwas trocken, die weiche und leicht süße Rauchigkeit gefällt. Langer rauchiger und frischer Nachhall. 11/13/11/11//11

Hopfig malziger, eher trockener Antrunk. Mild röstig, spritzig, zum Ende angenehm hopfig. Gut! 10/12/12/12//12

Sehr milder, etwas hopfiger Antrunk. Deutliche Fruchtnoten, trocken herb, weich. 10/9/9/9//9

Bottle at ABC Beers Pre-Borefts Tasting, The Hague. Pours black with a medium tan head. Aroma of dark chcolate, fudge, roast, toffee and burnt notes. Flavour us moderate to light heavy sweet and bitter. Medium to light full bodied with soft carbonation.

Dunkel würziger, etwas wässrig bitterer Antrunk. Steigende Intensität, etwas bitter. Gelungen. 10/9/9/9//9

English take on the old Kölsch style, older bottle from Malt Attacks. The fact that the label says ’Köln style lager’ does not elicit a lot of trust in me: though Kölsch may well be the ale style which comes the closest to a pale lager, it is technically still an ale, at least if one considers the type of yeast to be defining for the distinction between top fermentation and bottom fermentation. Anyway: very lightly hazy ’old gold’ colour with low sparkling, growing ever more misty and peachy as the bottle progresses, ending even a bit ’soupy’, under a medium thick, finely lacing, off-white head consisting of minuscule bubbles. Weakish aroma of dried apricot, white wine, white bread dough, red apple peel, dry hay, after which increasingly less appetizing odours appear: lots of phenols reminiscent of things varying from pleasant cloves to less pleasant band aid, clear DMS (cooked Brussels sprouts) proving that this nasty odour will not go away with age, rotting nettles, pond water. Taste starts with a certain fruity crispness but a bit too estery for a Kölsch, with flavours of green kiwi, unripe plum and green apple, in all a bit more sourish than sweetish; soft carbo contributing to a soft, rather thin body, paired with an oily mouthfeel, a minerally ’basic’ flavour and a simple pale malt sweetishness with a light bready touch. Finish remains pale malts, but some earthy, floral, even somewhat spicy hop bitterness shows up and provides enough structure and drought, even clinging a bit to the back of the mouth; retronasally, I also get a lot of the aforementioned spicy, even herbal phenols. Not too impressed by this: it has too many off-flavours, though the aroma as a whole stays subtle enough for this to remain tolerable; what bothers me more, is that this remains far removed from the classic Kölsch beers from Cologne, in spite of its ambitions. It seems it got lost on the way east and got stuck somewhere in Belgium: if I’d have to taste this blind, I’d associate it much more with an estery, ’dirty’ Belgian blonde rather than with Kölsch. English Kölsch is still a rather strange concept to me, but then we have Thornbridge’s Tzara as the pioneer in this context, which seemed a bit more accomplished. I think this Nico proves that the subtleties of some old European beer traditions often get lost in translation when craft breweries from other countries try to tackle them - Kölsch is far less an ’easy’ or ’simple’ style than it may seem to many. Still, interesting to see an English craft brewery make an attempt at it.

Sample at Pre-Borefts tasting at ABCBeers. thick creamy tan head. Clear black pour. lots of chocolate. very nice

Bottle from Good Taste, Crystal Palace. It pours cloudy deep orange with a decent off-White head. The nose is soft, juicy, apricot, soft orange, soft, wheat, hay and some marmalade. The taste is crisp, bitter, quite light, wheat, straw, orange citrus, zesty and marmalade with a dry, citrusy finish. Light - medium body and fine, prickly carbonation. Good balance and drinkability. Nice one.