porter's beer vs ale

porter's beer and ale both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
porter's beer	Yes	No	No	No
ale	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, ale is a hypernym of porter's beer; that is, ale is a word with a broader meaning than porter's beer:

porter's beer: a very dark sweet ale brewed from roasted unmalted barley
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

porter's beer (noun)	ale (noun)
a very dark sweet ale brewed from roasted unmalted barley	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