Well-made beer has always had one advantage over well-made wine for buyers who enjoy both: Beer is cheaper.

That isn't to say there aren't cheap wines aplenty. But where beer's value has always stood out is in the highest price tier. The most coveted wines can set you back several hundred dollars to thousands for rare vintages while the most expensive beers on the market seldom break the $10 barrier.

But increasingly well-made beer is starting to take a heavier toll on the pocketbook. Specialty imports like Le Baladin Xyauy, a 13.5 percent alcohol by volume English style barley wine from Italy, sells for around $40 for a 16.9 ounce bottle. Bush Prestige is a 13 percent abv oak-aged strong Belgian pale ale that can fetch up to $45 for a 750-milliliter bottle.

Dogfish Head from Delaware releases two wallet busters. Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA and World Wide Stout (21 percent abv and 18 percent abv, respectively) sell for up to $12 for a 12-ounce bottle. At $1 an ounce, they certainly aren't brews for budget-minded beer lovers.

But all of these ales are cheap compared to Samuel Adam's Utopias, a monster of a brew at 25 percent abv. Utopias, limited to 3,000 bottles the last time it was brewed, sold for $100 with eBay resells breaking the $200 mark.

A new batch of Utopias, which is more akin to port or Madeira in aroma and flavor profile, will be released this holiday season. It will feature a blend of past batches, some aged up to 13 years, and carries a suggested retail price of $120 to $140. The 2007 vintage will be limited to 12,000 bottles. If every bottle sells at the lowest suggested retail price, that would be $1,440,000!

Fortunately, despite rampant beer-flation, quality beers remain a steal by wine's standards. Hundreds of world class beers, rivaling most any wine for flavor and complexity, can be found for under $10 for a wine-sized 750-milliliters, under $5 for a 22-ounce bottle and under $2 for a 12-ounce bottle. Here are a few craft beers in the three most common sizes that are a good deal:

Clipper City's Hang Ten is a 10 percent abv weizen bock, which is a dark wheat beer brewed to bock strength (6 to 7 percent abv) or higher. Hang Ten has the obligatory banana and bubble gum aromas of German wheat beers, but mixes in raisins and caramel. The beer's flavor profile features ripe banana, clove, smoke and toasted wheat. At $1.99 or less for a 12-ounce bottle, it is a bargain.

Ommegang is the flagship beer from Belgian-owned Brewery Ommegang in Cooperstown, N.Y. Ommegang is malt heavy and features dark fruit with hints of caramel and toffee. The beer's flavor is composed of honey, berries, cherries and mild chocolate and caramel notes. It dries out in the finish, leaving a fig-accented aftertaste. A 750-milliliter bottle of Ommegang can be had for less than $7 a bottle.

Then there is Lagunitas Brewing Company of Petaluma, Calif., which seems to specialize in affordable 22-ounce bottles, nicknamed bombers. Nearly the entire Lagunitas line can be purchased in bombers for less than $5 a bottle. Lagunitas' Cappuccino Stout, an autumn seasonal, is a hearty brew that features pumpernickel, coffee and chocolate in both the aroma and flavor profile and can be yours for less than the price of a supersize combo meal.