What Delawareans drink: selling, trending

You know what you drink. But what does everyone else drink?

For no other reason other than the fact that we're nosy, we tracked down 10 owners and managers of some of Delaware's biggest and best-known bars and asked a simple question: "What's popular?"

What we got in return is the best-selling beer and spirit brand at each spot, stretching from Two Stones Pub in Brandywine Hundred up north to Grotto Pizza in South Bethany Beach down south.

Here are the results:

Catherine Rooney's (Wilmington and Newark): Guinness and Fireball Cinnamon Whisky

Deer Park Tavern (Newark): Yuengling and Captain Morgan Rum

Dogfish Head Brewings & Eats (Rehoboth Beach): Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA and Dogfish Head Blue Hen Vodka

Grotto Pizza (Various locations): Coors Light and Svedka Vodka

Kid Shelleen's Charcoal House and Saloon (Wilmington): Miller Lite and Captain Morgan Rum

Highway One bars and restaurants (Bottle & Cork, The Rusty Rudder, northbeach, etc., in Dewey Beach): Bud Light and Bocador 151 Rum

Kelly's Logan House (Wilmington): Miller Lite and Smirnoff flavored vodka

The Starboard (Dewey Beach): Coors Light and Smirnoff Orange Vodka

Two Stones Pub (Newark and Brandywine Hundred): Brooklyn Brewery's Brooklyn Sorachi Ace and Stolichnaya Orange Vodka

W.T. Smithers (Dover): Bud Light and Captain Morgan Rum

WHAT'S TRENDING

It doesn't take long for a new beer brand or spirit to take off – especially with plenty of money pushing an advertising campaign when it hits new markets like Delaware.

It's weird when a new flavor you've never heard of before crosses the state line into Delaware. You go from maybe thinking Lagunitas is a new appetizer at La Tolteca to seeing it sold in just about every bar you frequent.

For some brands like the super-popular Fireball Cinnamon Whisky, success comes fast and seems to stay. Others can fizz out quickly if no one buys the stuff.

Some of the flavored vodkas and rums undergo huge swings in popularity due to "flavor fatigue," insiders say. The flavor fad can quickly jump from, say, Pinnacle's whipped cream to a current best-seller, Bacardi Pineapple Fused rum.

With that in mind, we talked to those in the know and here are a dozen of the hottest beers and spirits in Delaware these days.

Beers

Dogfish Head

Lagunitas

Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy

New Belgium Fat Tire

Otter Creek's Wolaver's

Redd's Apple Ale

Victory

Spirits

Fireball Cinnamon Whisky

Kraken Rum

New Amsterdam Vodka

Sailor Jerry Rum

Tito's Handmade Vodka

Woodford Reserve Bourbon

BAR TIPS

We never mind venturing just over the state line for a good glass of wine. On any given weekend, plan to set your elbows on the tasting room bar of the Vietri family run Va La Vineyards in Avondale, Pa. Wines are available by the bottle or by the glass. (La Prima Donna, please.) A tasting flight is $20. Visit valavineyards.com.