noun.
An intoxicatingliquor made from an infusion of malt by fermentation and the addition of a bitter, usually hops.
noun.
A festival in English country places, so called from the liquor drunk.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun.
a general name for beer made with a top fermenting yeast; in some of the United States an ale is (by law) a brew of more than 4% alcohol by volume
Word Usage
"Formerly, brewers made ale only twice a year, -- the _summer ale_ in"