Dan drinking beer, seldom discontented northerner (8)
I believe the answer is:
dalesman
'northerner' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'dan drinking beer seldom discontented' is the wordplay.
'drinking' is an insertion indicator (inserted letters are consumed or drunk).
'beer' becomes 'ale' (type of beer).
'discontented' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (the word's contents are removed).
'seldom' with its centre taken out is 'sm'.
'ale'+'sm'='alesm'
'dan' going around 'alesm' is 'DALESMAN'.
(Other definitions for dalesman that I've seen before include "native of Yorkshire" , "one from Yorkshire" , "who may live in Yorkshire?" , "Northerner" .)