Working party beginning to respond, following neat drink (6,4)
I believe the answer is:
spruce beer
'drink' is the definition.
(spruce beer is a kind of drink)
'working party beginning to respond following neat' is the wordplay.
'working party' becomes 'bee' (social event for work, as in a sewing bee).
'beginning to' says to take the initial letters.
'following' says to put letters next to each other.
'neat' becomes 'spruce' (synonyms).
The first letter of 'respond' is 'r'.
'bee'+'r'='beer'
'beer' put after 'spruce' is 'SPRUCE-BEER'.
(Another definition for spruce beer that I've seen is " drink".)