Should I visit Dallas or Houston for beer?

Haven't been to Dallas for beer in ages.
I can say that Houston beer has improved vastly over the last 5(ish) years. I believe that Holler frequently has cask and English ales.

Big factor will be styles / transportation. Both cities are very spread out. If you don't have your own transportation, you may want to pick a style and try to find several breweries doing that style grouped together(ish).

Or, just a clustering of breweries.

You could easily spend an hour + driving across either city. Further if you go into the surrounding cities that have essentially blend into the Houston-proper and Dallas-proper.

 

Holler is probably the only place in Houston now that has cask. I don't think Saint Arnold does it anymore. For some reason Holler currently has a Berliner Weisse on cask which is...interesting but not something I would really recommend. They have their classic ESB and a great Foreign Export on tap though. Hopefully they go back to their good English styles on cask soon.

Edit: Also forgot New Magnolia in Houston. I always forget about them. I have had a few good English styles from them on cask, but typically its hit and miss. For both beer and what they have on cask, but still a place to look into.

 

It really depends on what you are wanting out of the visit. Houston and Dallas as mentioned above are pretty spread out and the breweries follow that path. So one plan of attack would be to pick and area of town and spend a day in that area. So for example
Downtown: (map these some are walking distance to each other, others are short Uber)
Holler
Urban South
Equal Parts
Saint Arnolds
Local Group
True Anomaly
8th Wonder
Outer Downtown: (most a short Uber)
Brash
Great Heights
Eureka Heights
Karbach (inside has some nicer beers)
Baileston Brewery
Southern Yankee (off downtown location)

As for Dallas, I like going here for hitting a couple of breweries, but man they are spread out here and most require an uber. Some close together, I will defer that to the dallas crew.

I know it isn't on your list, but if you are wanting a beer weekend and don't want to spend a lot of time driving Tulsa is a nice spot. There are 1 world class brewery there American Solera and another few that are up there with the best. And if you don't have an aversion to walking you can hit most of them by foot. You are SOL on cask here though
Off downtown:
American Solera
Marshall Brewing Company
Cabin Boys
Heirloom Rustic Ales
Nothing Left (really liked them a few years ago, was disappointed in them last year)
Downtown:
NEFF Brewing
Eerie Abbey Ales
Elgin Park (low abv brewpub affiliated with Marshall)
Other:
Dead Armadillo (never tried)
Renaissance Brewing

Good luck and give us heads up where you choose to go and we can throw out some food options

 

I can't speak for Dallas and @donspublic and @champ103 have already laid out Houston pretty well. Only things I can add is that there are very few breweries that are within walking distance of other breweries in Houston. So you will be driving/ubering if you want to hit up multiple spots.

It's relatively easy to walk between Holler and Buffalo Bayou Brewing, for example. And its a LONG walk (but theoretically walkable-about 1/2 mile) between Holler and Urban South. Holler is definitely recommended if you like English-style ales. Everything they do is very solid. Buffalo Bayou's beers are not my favorite but they have gorgeous space. I have not eaten there, but I'm relatively confident the food will be good. Urban South is a "fad chasing" brewery that specializes in hazy IPAs and fruit smoothie "sours". They're good for what they aim at, but I'm not sure that's your cuppa. In the opposite direction from Urban South is Platypus, which brews beers with what I'd guess you'd say is an Australian twist.

It's a short walk between True Anomaly and Eighth Wonder. True Anomaly may have some English-style beers on tap. Eighth Wonder is a love affair to Houston and, believe it or not, the Houston rap scene. They have a lot of crowd pleasing beers and a few more interesting ones. They also have (or at least had--been a while since I've been there) a distillery. Rodeo Goat is right there and makes the best burgers in Houston with a decent taplist.

New Magnolia and Eureka Heights are within reasonable walking distance of one another. New Magnolia is up and coming. Eureka Heights is another brewery that does a great job with crowd-pleasing beers. They have (or had) pinball machines though, which scores points in my personal book

Finally, and it hasn't been mentioned because most beer enthusiasts hate the place, Walking Stick up in Garden Oaks will 100% have multiple, very solid English-style ales on tap. People hate it because the place is hyper-popular with 20-somethings and 30-somethings who bring their young kids. I've seen kid birthday parties held there. I think the space is awesome but if you don't like crowds, especially married hipster crowds, you won't love it. It is right across the street from Great Heights brewing, which is hit or miss but has some very good hazy IPAs among other offerings. Also right across the street is a new distillery and an urban winery.

All four of these little clusters of breweries require a car ride to get between them. I'm sure there are other clusters that I'm forgetting too....

 

Holler, Saint Arnold, True Anomaly are great. Other Houston folks can tell me if they think otherwise, but 8th Wonder isn't going to blow your socks off. The beer is solidly 'fine'. It's a neat spot if the weather is nice. But again, there's much better beer to be had in the city.

If you're going to be in the vicinity of the brewers you noted above, I'd sub in Buffalo Bayou or Urban South (haven't been, but in the right area and the IPAs I've had have been good. Mostly smoothie sours, NEIPA. may have some stouts).

If you're near New Magnolia, I'd recommend Eureka Heights and Great Heights.

 

If you come to Houston, some things to keep in mind These are in and around the breweries, so can drop by one while in route to your next location j

Hughie's Tavern and Vietnamese Grille & Hughie's on 18th street (Great Food and Great taplist)
Heights Bier Garten (Good sandwiches and taplist)
Cottonwood (Good food and taplist)
Southern Yankee Brewing off downtown (I haven't eaten there, but everyone who has loves it)
Rodeo Goat (Ken wasn't steering you wrong, great burgers)
The Original Ninfas on Navigation (Good Tex Mex food)
Axelrad Beer Garden (open late and usually a good taplist)

If you want more food recommendations, post what types of cuisines you enjoy. One thing Houston has going for it is the diversity of it's restaurants. And also by checking out these beer bars you can sample some of the other breweries in town that are a little out of the way like Lone Pint (must try Yellow Rose), Spindle Tap (one of the first to get the NEIPA right in Houston) & Baa Baa Brewhouse (another one of the first to nail the style).

 

Southern Yankee's Crafthouse has really good beer, and their Neapolitan like pizzas are legit. Its the breweries restaurant in the city (the brewery itself is on the north outskirts of town) and really good IMO.

Saint Arnold and Buff Bayou both have good pizzas at their restaurants as well. Definitely check out Hughies for Vietnamese, and Houston in general has some of the better Vietnamese food in the country, which can be an entirely new discussion ha (again IMO). I just had killer shaking beef and Maine Lunch at Hughies last night This is the Main St location, the original is on 18th St, both close to the Heights where I live.




Edit: If you want to check out a total dive, no promises on beer quality but should have something from Saint Arnold, check out Keneally's. Excellent Chicago thin crust pub style pizzas.

 

Will second the recommendation for Hughie's.

 

While everyone's at it - recommendations for if you had time to visit only one or two breweries in Dallas?

 

It's not Ken (but close enough!). These are all great recommendations except that I would go with the other side of the Lorenzo family and go to El Tiempo over Ninfas. I accept that there are people on both sides of that debate and it is legitimate to prefer either over the other. But El Tiempo is still the actual correct answer to the question "What is the best Tex Mex in the whole damn country?"

 

It's more Forth Worth than Dallas, but based on what I've had down here in Houston, I would definitely recommend Turning Point.

 

Another dive that usually has a very solid tap list is Rudyards.

 

Sucker for the Shamrock, that used to be my late nite joint after hitting up the Astros game back when I worked downtown.

 

Sorry for that

 

Lakewood Brewing (Solid stout with variants, usually pretty good with Belgian styles)
Peticolas Brewing Company (Solid brewery, usually one cask ale, check out their website)
Community Brewing (used to love this place, but kinda waffling on it, taproom is huge warehouse with games and sometimes live entertainment)
Texas Ale Project (probably not the best beer you will have, but a nice spot, good people and usually live music or something going on, beautiful space, went last time I was in Dallas and beer has improved, Caucasian is a great White Stout)
Manhattan Project Beer Company (while I have never been there, every beer I have had of theirs is straight up solid, really enjoy their German Pilsner).
If you do decide to hit up Dallas, you could make a day of it and hit everything in the South part, pretty much everything I listed except for Lakewood. And finish out the night at Meddlesome Moth. They have great food and an outstanding tap list. By far my favorite restaurant in Dallas.