Spirited quartet taking beer outside (5)
I believe the answer is:
alive
'spirited' is the definition.
(full of life)
'quartet taking beer outside' is the wordplay.
'quartet' becomes 'IV' (Roman numerals for four).
'taking beer' becomes 'ale' (type of beer. I am not sure about the 'taking' bit.).
'outside' is an insertion indicator (some letters go outside others).
'iv' placed within 'ale' is 'ALIVE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for alive that I've seen before include "Breathing, existing" , "answer, as it happens" , "operative?" , "Quick - breathing" , "Go or walk briskly" .)