Ask Eureka Heights: Your 10 Biggest Beer Questions, Answered

We hear the same handful of questions roughly nine thousand times a week from across the bar — usually right after “is that food truck still out there?” So we rounded up the ten biggest ones and answered them as honestly as we could. We may or may not be a few shots in.

1. What should I order if I’m new to craft beer?

First of all: welcome. Second of all: relax, nobody here is going to quiz you on hop varietals or make you smell anything.

Try out our Buckle Bunny Cream Ale. It’s brewed with corn, which sounds like an odd thing to volunteer, but it’s exactly why the beer lands light, clean, and almost entirely without the bitterness that put you off beer in the first place.

“If you’re not usually into beer, I’d suggest trying Buckle Bunny first. It’s a cream ale that’s light, clean, and highly drinkable with low bitterness and low alcohol make it approachable even if you don’t like hoppy or heavy craft beers. This makes Buckle Bunny a great ‘gateway’ beer for someone easing into craft beer flavors that are refreshing but not intimidating.”

– Rob Eichenlaub, Co-owner and Co-founder of Eureka Heights Brew Co.

It also took gold at the Great American Beer Festival in 2017 and bronze in 2021. That is the largest beer competition in the country, and it is judged blind, so the medals say something about what is in the can rather than what is printed on it.

You might also want to get a flight. Try a bunch of little ones, figure out what you like, and let us do the rest. That’s literally the whole point of the tasting.

2. Does mixing different beers make the hangover worse?

We regret to inform you that “beer before liquor, never sicker” is folklore, not chemistry.

Your hangover doesn’t care whether you had one style or five. It cares about how much total alcohol you drank, whether you drank any water, and whether you ate something that wasn’t just the free pretzels. Mixing an IPA, a stout, and a cream ale won’t wreck you any harder than three of the same thing at the same strength.

What does help though is pacing yourself, alternating with water, and picking our lower-ABV year-rounds, so you can enjoy the whole afternoon instead of just the first 40 minutes of it. We build a lot of our beers to be sessionable on purpose. Sitting back and having a few without falling on your ass is kind of our brand.

3. Can I try a few beers before I commit to a pint?

Yes! You could get a flight in our taproom. You pick four or five beers off the tap list and they arrive as small pours lined up on a paddle, so you can taste your way across the board instead of gambling a full pint on something you’ve never had. 

With 22 taps running in the taproom, nobody expects you to get it right the first time. Try putting Buckle Bunny and Mini Boss next to each other and you’ll learn a lot about your own taste after a few tries.

4. What’s the story behind Lucky, the brewery cat?

Lucky is our Maneki-neko, the Japanese Lucky Cat, gifted to us by our landlord as a symbol of good fortune. You’ve almost certainly spotted the little legend perched on top of the To-Go cooler, endlessly waving at everyone who walks through the door. Lucky’s been with us since the very beginning — a full decade of loyal, uninterrupted service.

One rule: if you ever see Lucky not waving, please alert the staff immediately. Seriously. We do not mess with that kind of bad luck.

We loved that cat so much we brewed a beer in Lucky’s honor. It’s called the Lucky Life Rice Lager, a crispy rice lager at 5.1% ABV, made with Pilsner malt and flaked rice for an ultra-crisp, refreshing finish. It’s nothing to shake your paw at. It’s perfect for patio weather, late nights, and whatever comes your way. 

5. Can I book the taproom for a private event?

Of course! Birthdays, company happy hours, retirement parties, team gatherings, reunions, and the occasional plan that finally escaped the group chat all happen here. Smaller crews can reserve a table. If you want the run of the place with staff pointed at your group specifically, that’s a private rental. 

Give us a few weeks where you can, because the calendar tightens up fast. Send your date and headcount through the reservations page, so we can sort out timing, minimums, and setup.

6. Where did the name Eureka Heights come from?

Our name comes from the Eureka Heights fault system, which runs under our brewery. The fault was important during the development of Houston and even has a railroad tower named after it, and we’re pretty sure we don’t need to tell choo how awesome we feel about that.

7. Is there a beer that doesn’t taste like beer?

Yup, Fruity Hazy Haze Juice is the one. It’s a hazy IPA brewed with wheat and oats, which is what gives it a thick, soft body instead of a sharp one, and the hops in it lean tangerine, coconut, and berry rather than anything bitter or piney. It drinks a lot closer to juice than to whatever most people picture when they hear IPA, which is exactly why it stays on the year-round board.

8. What do you love about the Heights?

The people, genuinely. The Heights is just chef’s kiss, home to the friendliest folks you’ll ever meet, and a solid chunk of why this taproom feels the way it does is that they keep turning up. Add a food truck out front, somebody’s dog underneath it, and a spirited argument about whether Mini Boss or Buckle Bunny is the better beer, and that’s a pretty good weekend. Our regulars are the best part of this, hands down.

9. Where can I buy these cans outside the taproom?

You’ll find our cans at major grocery chains and beer retailers across Houston, and the beer pours at more than 500 bars and restaurants around the city. Our Brew Finder points you at the specific store holding the specific beer, which beats driving to four places on faith.

10. Who is Betty White and why is she hiding?

Betty White is our patron saint. Our main lady is tucked away somewhere in the brewery, and your mission is to find her. Track Betty down, tip off one of our friendly staff to her whereabouts, and you’ll be rewarded with an exclusive “I found Betty White at Eureka Heights” sticker. 

After you claim victory, you are not only permitted but strongly encouraged to rub it in all your friends’ faces. Those are the rules. We don’t make them, we just enforce them.