"mixed ale"?

[GEORGE THOMPSON]

Jesse Sheidlower asked: Is anyone familiar with the term "mixed ale"?
        We have a small number of examples from the 1880s to the 1930s (the
        last from the Tamony Collection), mostly in figurative uses
        apparently meaning 'poor', and apparently in reference to the result
        of drinking mixed ale.  It is not clear, though, what the ale is
        mixed with. The earliest quote we have is from the 1886 edition of
        Webster's and reads:  _Slape-ale_, plain ale, as opposed to
        medicated or *mixed ale.

I don't have any references to the term "mixed ale", but I dare say
that the word refers to a concoction similar to what Jacob Riis calls
"stale beer".  It seems that last century (the 19th, of course) the
very lowest boozing dives in New York sold as beer and for pennies
the dregs collected from beer barrels from higher grade taverns, and
doctored with chemicals to give the stuff a head.  Sounds like a
loathsome beverage, and, by report, pretty devastating.

GAT