Explorer, fairly short, drinking beer (7)
I believe the answer is:
raleigh
'explorer' is the definition.
(Sir Walter Raleigh)
'fairly short drinking beer' is the wordplay.
'fairly' becomes 'right' (doing something right can mean doing it fairly).
'short' means to remove the last letter.
'drinking' means one lot of letters goes inside another (inserted letters are consumed or drunk).
'beer' becomes 'ale' (type of beer).
'right' with its final letter taken off is 'righ'.
'righ' going around 'ale' is 'RALEIGH'.
(Other definitions for raleigh that I've seen before include "Sir Walter . . . . . . . early tobacco importer" , "Courtier favourite of Elizabeth I" , "Did he fetch tobacco" , "Tudor courtier" , "navigator and author" .)