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They're fermented carefully, barrel-aged and vintage-dated. They improve in the bottle when stored in a cool, dark place. Their flavors reflect the climate and soil of their origin. And they're enjoyed most when sipped slowly, with friends.

We're talking about beer, of course. What else?

Beer has gone upscale in a big way, with a subset of brews called barley wines and other vintage ales attracting increasing numbers of connoisseurs who collect, age, trade, swirl and sip every bit as passionately as wine geeks do. In some cases, the flavors and aromas are every bit as complex as those of fine wines — at a fraction of the cost.

These are by no means the wimpy beers you'll find stacked in 12-packs at the gas station carryout. They're not built for guzzling: Most barley wines have two or three times the alcohol level as their tamer brewed cousins, and use three times as much malt in the brewing process. In other words, they pack a wallop on both the taste buds and your bloodstream.

The flavors of these vintage ales range from sweet to bitter, tart to fruity. Some manage to pull off the rather dazzling accomplishment of being all those things, through the course of one sip.

A group of beer aficionados (aka "Hopheads") recently gathered in Dayton to taste various barley wines and other vintage ales. The event was organized by Rick Kennedy, the Cleveland-area sales manager for beer distributor Cavalier Distributing. Joining Kennedy were Aaron Spores, also of Cavalier; Rob Gerrity and Lee Hill, representing the Sierra Nevada Brewery; Mike Schwartz from Belmont Party Supply; and Joe Waizmann, who organizes the AleFest of Dayton as well as other AleFests around the Midwest. Avid beer enthusiast and Dayton Daily News photographer Jim Witmer also was invited. I tagged along as the token wine geek.

The beers were a revelation. On one end of the flavor spectrum, two 2000-vintage Lambic-style brews — Cantillon Gueuze Lou Pepe and Drie Fonteinen Oude Gueuze — tasted like complex Champagne, with cidery, slightly oxidized nuances. On the other end, JW Lee's Harvest Ales from 1998 and 2002 were somewhat Port-like, with sweet caramel, toffee and vanilla notes.

In between, there were older vintages (1990 and 1993) of Thomas Hardy's Ale that had nutty, complex aromas and flavors of coffee and maple syrup; four vintages (the oldest, 1999, the youngest, 2008) of Sierra Nevada Bigfoot ales that shared a certain smooth up-front flavor followed by a pleasant bitterness that invited the next sip; and three vintages of the Stone Vertical Epic that featured a cacophony of flavors ranging from citrus and ginger to cloves.

At times, the conversation around the tasting table sounded eerily like a wine tasting. Belmont Party Supply's Schwartz tasted one brew and suggested drinking it now "is like robbing the cradle. You need to put these back at least five years" before they show their best. Sierra Nevada's Gerrity revealed that he's saving a six-pack from the vintage of his children's birth years to present to them on their 21st birthday. When a particularly impressive barley wine filled everyone's glass, the conversation ceased, and everyone focused on swirling, sniffing and sipping from their glass.

Prices of these vintage ales are much less than high-quality vintage wines — though much more than the aforementioned Bud Light. Some Lambic-style brews come in 750-ml bottles for $15-$20, while some of the higher-end barley wines can cost $6-$8 or more for a single bottle containing 12 ounces or less.

But Americans have signaled they're ready — and willing to pay — for fuller-flavored beers. The Brewers Association reported last week that the craft-beer market, which includes the vintage ales and other high-end brews, grew by double digits in 2007, leading all other segments in the beer category. Sales by independent craft brewers rose 16 percent in dollars — from $4.95 billion to $5.74 billion — in 2007.

"Since 2004, dollar sales by craft brewers have increased 58 percent," said Paul Gatza, director of the Brewers Association. "The strength of this correlates with the American trend of buying local products and a preference for more flavorful foods and beers."

That doesn't mean Americans are abandoning their Bud Lights and Miller Genuine Drafts just yet. Craft brewers' share of the overall beer category is still 3.8 percent of production and 5.9 percent of retail sales, the Brewers Association said.

But if the group around our tasting table has its way, those percentages will continue heading upward.

Where to buy

We turned to Joe Waizmann — local beer enthusiast and organizer of AleFest Dayton (Aug. 23, mark your calendars!) and several other AleFests across the Midwest — for a list some of the best places in the Miami Valley to find barley wines and other high-end beers. Here's what Joe came up with:

Retailers*

Arrow Wine & Spirits (Centerville, Kettering)

Bee Gee's Market (Kettering)

Belmont Party Supply

Culinary Company (Centerville)

Centerville Carry Out

Cork-N-Vine (Troy)

Cuvee Wine Bar & Cellar (Bellbrook)

Dorothy Lane Market (Oakwood, Washington Twp., Springboro)

Emporium Unlimited (Yellow Springs)

Jerardi's Little Store (Butler Twp.)

Jungle Jim's (Hamilton-Fairfield)

Manor Wine & Spirits (Riverside)

Miami Valley Wine & Spirits (Tipp City)

Rivers Bend Wine & Spirits (Maineville)

West Milton IGA

Wine Works (Springfield)

*Bruning's Clock Shop in Beavercreek expects to receive a retail permit with the next month or two and will offer wines and craft beers.

Taverns / restaurants

Chappys Tap House & Grille (Washington Twp.-West Carrollton)

Boston's Bistro (Harrison Twp.)

Dublin Pub (Dayton)

Tank's Bar & Grill (Dayton)

For more information on regional AleFest events — including events on Saturday, March 8, in Indianapolis, June 20 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base and Aug. 23 in Dayton — go to www.alefest.com.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2258 or mfisher@coxohio.com.