Crossword Genius

Dream of unlimited cider and malt? (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

ideal

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'dream' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)

'unlimited cider and malt?' is the wordplay.
'unlimited' says to take the centre (remove the limits/outer letters).
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'malt?' becomes 'al' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The middle letters of 'cider' are 'ide'.
'ide'+'al'='IDEAL'

'of' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for ideal that I've seen before include "(the best one can get)" , "To which one aspires" , "Model of excellence (5)." , "just the job" , "Best possible" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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