For a drink, it's less than a mile to the valley (4,3)

'for a drink' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'less than a mile to the valley' is the wordplay.
'less than' means to remove the last letter (not the full word).
'to the valley' becomes 'dale' (dale is a kind of valley).
'mile' with its last letter taken off is 'mil'.
'mil'+'dale'='MILD ALE'

'it's' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?