Not the last of the fine ale - the last! (5)
I believe the answer is:
final
'the last' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'not the last of the fine ale' is the wordplay.
'not the last of' means to remove the last letter (I've seen 'not the last' mean this).
'ale' becomes 'al' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'fine' with its final letter taken away is 'fin'.
'fin'+'al'='FINAL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for final that I've seen before include "big match" , "Conclusive" , "Not to be altered" , "Last, ultimate" , "The last exam or leg of competition" .)