beer vs ale

beer and ale both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
beer	Yes	No	No	No
ale	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, ale is a hyponym of beer; that is, ale is a word with a more specific, narrower meaning than beer:

beer: a general name for alcoholic beverages made by fermenting a cereal (or mixture of cereals) flavored with hops
ale: 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

Other hyponyms of beer include draft beer, draught beer, suds, lager, lager beer.

beer (noun)	ale (noun)
a general name for alcoholic beverages made by fermenting a cereal (or mixture of cereals) flavored with hops	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