Beer drunk by liberal man of courage in act of defiance (9)
I believe the answer is:
rebellion
'act of defiance' is the definition.
'beer drunk by liberal man' is the wordplay.
'drunk' indicates an anagram.
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'liberal' becomes 'l' (abbreviation).
'man' becomes 'lion' ().
'beer' with letters rearranged gives 'rebe'.
'rebe'+'l'+'lion'='REBELLION'
'of courage in' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rebellion that I've seen before include "insurgence" , "Insurrection, revolt" , "Boxers' movement" , "Coup d'tat" , "Rising" .)