The Collaborative International Dictionary
Beer \Beer\, n. [OE. beor, ber, AS. be['o]r; akin to Fries. biar, Icel. bj?rr, OHG. bior, D. & G. bier, and possibly E. brew. [root]93, See Brew.]
-
A fermented liquor made from any malted grain, but commonly from barley malt, with hops or some other substance to impart a bitter flavor.
Note: Beer has different names, as small beer, ale, porter, brown stout, lager beer, according to its strength, or other qualities. See Ale.
-
A fermented extract of the roots and other parts of various plants, as spruce, ginger, sassafras, etc.
Small beer, weak beer; (fig.) insignificant matters. ``To suckle fools, and chronicle small beer.''
--Shak.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1560s, originally "weak beer;" used figuratively of small things or trifling matters. Small with the meaning "of low alcoholic content" is attested from mid-15c.
Wiktionary
n. 1 (&lit small beer English) 2 Beer with a low alcoholic content. 3 (context chiefly British English) Something that is of relatively little importance.
WordNet
n. something of small importance [syn: triviality, trivia, trifle]
Wikipedia
Small beer (also, small ale) is a beer/ ale that contains very little alcohol. Sometimes unfiltered and porridge-like, it was a favoured drink in Medieval Europe and colonial North America as against the more expensive beer with higher alcohol. Small beer was also produced in households for consumption by children and servants.
Usage examples of "small beer".
They went down, opened a door and there sure enough was a small beer bar set up in one corner, a jukebox in another and fifteen or twenty curious-looking juvenile delinquents.
The last thing she needed was to get muddle-headed in a strange eating-house in a strange city, and although small beer didn't have a lot of punch to it, drinking too much could still put you under the table, and if it was this hot all night, she'd be resorting to her mug fairly often.
She had wiped down the tables and washed and stacked the serving-boards for dinner, and was now slumped at the traditional employees' table, wearily slurping small beer.
Arms flat on the table and legs thrust straight out into the aisle, he was scowling into a mug of small beer as if he expected it to rise up and challenge him.
What I got was small beer and chicken, the best-she claimed-to be had in that festering dump.
As it was Lent, the meal was meatless: bread and oatmeal, pease porridge, and small beer.
I kept them locked up in a small beer cooler until they were ready to be deployed.