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a malt beverage, darker, heavier, and more bitter than , containing about 6 percent alcohol by volume.
British, .
additional living expense.
Contemporary Examples

Lynchburg is a six-month-old German sausage and ale house in the heart of Panama’s San Francisco neighborhood.
House of the Witch: The Renegade Craft Brewers of Panama Jeff Campagna November 29, 2014

His proposal of marriage was turned down by the actress Sue Jones—model for the earthy Rosie in Cakes and ale.
Maugham’s Love Life Brad Gooch June 2, 2010

The Daily Telegraph could not resist headlining the piece: ale Under the Veil.
Ale Under the Veil David Frum March 25, 2012

Beer and ale, for example, in Great Britain, and wine, even in the wine countries, I call luxuries.
What We Can Learn From Rioting in Sweden Megan McArdle May 27, 2013

The popular Fat Tire ale is one of seven being produced in its Fort Collins facility.
Winds of Change: Who’s Doing What in Wind? Daily Beast Promotions February 6, 2011

Historical Examples

I played on my pipe at the Echo, and then drank a cup of ale at Jacob’s.
Diary of Samuel Pepys, Complete Samuel Pepys

One more round of mead or ale and the score to the last comer.
The White Company Arthur Conan Doyle

He received a summons to appear before the president, who said: “Sir, I am informed that you have a barrel of ale in your room.”
The American Joe Miller Various

The hyseters he has eat, and the pints of ale he has drank, in this house—!’
The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby Charles Dickens

Before the century ended New Englanders had abandoned the constant drinking of ale and beer for cider.
Americana Ebrietatis Hewson L. Peeke

noun
a beer fermented in an open vessel using yeasts that rise to the top of the brew Compare beer, lager1
(formerly) an alcoholic drink made by fermenting a cereal, esp barley, but differing from beer by being unflavoured by hops
(mainly Brit) another word for beer
n.

Old English ealu “ale, beer,” from Proto-Germanic *aluth- (cf. Old Saxon alo, Old Norse öl), perhaps from PIE root meaning “bitter” (cf. Latin alumen “alum”), or from PIE *alu-t “ale,” from root *alu-, which has connotations of “sorcery, magic, possession, intoxication.” The word was borrowed from Germanic into Lithuanian (alus) and Old Church Slavonic (olu).

In the fifteenth century, and until the seventeenth, ale stood for the unhopped fermented malt liquor which had long been the native drink of these islands. Beer was the hopped malt liquor introduced from the Low Countires in the fifteenth century and popular first of all in the towns. By the eighteenth century, however, all malt liquor was hopped and there had been a silent mutation in the meaning of the two terms. For a time the terms became synonymous, in fact, but local habits of nomenclature still continued to perpetuate what had been a real difference: ‘beer’ was the malt liquor which tended to be found in towns, ‘ale’ was the term in general use in the country districts. [Peter Mathias, “The Brewing Industry in England,” Cambridge University Press, 1959]

Meaning “festival or merry-meeting at which much ale was drunk” was in Old English (see bridal).

additional living expense