A Whale A Week: Olde Hickory’s The Event Horizon

For this A Whale A Week tasting we head to The South, for a rare beer from North Carolina.  Located in Hickory, NC, (north of Charlotte) the brewery opened in 1994 and has been very popular ever since.  Being a Midwest guy, I had never heard of Olde Hickory Brewery prior to getting a mysterious bottle of The Event Horizon in a trade.

The Event Horizon is a Russian Imperial Stout brewed with local honey, then aged in a variety of bourbon barrels.  Keep in mind that bourbon comes from not too far away from the brewery!  The resulting brew is actually blended after barrel aging, resulting in a more balanced bourbon character.  The brewery released this each year as a special release. Beer Advocate has this at 96 and RateBeer has it at at a solid 100.  This is a well-thought-of beer!

On our summer trip down to Asheville, NC, I discovered some of this year’s vintage in Bruisin’ Ales and bought two on faith that the beer was as good as people say.  I had hoped to get to t …