The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 3 letter word PALE ALE
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
P
A
L
E
A
L
E
More clues leading to the result PALE ALE
- Dad joining the French more than once to drink a beer
- Staff regularly asleep? It’s the drink
- . Under pressure, reportedly get sick twice with beer
- Faint, swallowing green drink
- A drink or two on the quiet
- Drink pints primarily and drink repeatedly
- Punter’s beginning on beer, beer and beer
- Quiet couple of drinks — or just one drink?
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "drink" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case drink = pale ale.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.