Goldspur was originally made by Alley Kat in Edmonton, for the Hop In Brew pub in Calgary, then it changed to Wild Rose at some point. Anyways, the bar has apparently come under new ownership, and Wild Rose has produced a barrel-aged (French Chardonnay) version in the meantime.
This 650ml bottle pours a clear, pale golden amber colour, with two fingers of puffy, loosely foamy, and mildly fizzy off-white head, which leaves some decent bonsai forest profile lace around the glass as it evenly subsides.
It smells of funky Brett, gritty and grainy cereal malt, white wine lees, some musty woodiness, and very faint earthy, herbal, and soused-up floral hop bitters. The taste is biscuity and grainy caramel malt, underripe green grapes, buttered toast, a thankfully restrained earthy funkiness, wet staves, and more well-understated leafy, herbal, and dead floral hoppiness. The carbonation is quite tame in its ennui-inducing frothiness, the body a solid medium weight, and actually smooth, with a wee airy creaminess evolving as things warm up a tad around here. It finishes off-dry, the grapey and malty essences presiding.
Overall – well, this one certainly delivers on its promise, providing a strong (though you wouldn’t know it from the flavour) golden ale, emboldened by white wine wood and funky bacteria. It somehow all just works, and I’m taken to nostalgia now, to that snowy night in Cowtown when I had my first Goldspur – and fantastic ‘za.