Novice's beer containing alcohol? Not initially (8)
I believe the answer is:
beginner
'novice's' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'beer containing alcohol? not initially' is the wordplay.
'containing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'alcohol?' becomes 'gin' (gin is an alcoholic spirit).
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'not' is 'n'.
'gin'+'n'='ginn'
'beer' going around 'ginn' is 'BEGINNER'.
(Other definitions for beginner that I've seen before include "One just starting out" , "Tiro, novice" , "inexperienced person" , "new recruit, perhaps" , "Tyro, rookie" .)