My ales turned out to be inadequate (6)
I believe the answer is:
measly
'inadequate' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'my ales turned out' is the wordplay.
'turned out' indicates anagramming the letters (turn out can mean to organise).
'my'+'ales'='myales'
'myales' anagrammed gives 'MEASLY'.
'to be' is the link.
(Other definitions for measly that I've seen before include "ungenerous in amount" , "quite inadequate" , "description of child's complaint" , "Miserably paltry" , "Slay me (anag)" .)