It was sweet, slightly fizzy, and the alcohol content was just high enough to kill the bugs in the water. Think of slightly alcoholic Ovaltine, that's about what it was. Per capita consumption was about 8 pints a day and provided a lot of the caloric intake. When temperance people encouraged a switch to tea in the countryside, that ushered in a long period of malnutrition.
Also, it's not a penny/ha'penny's worth of spices, it's what fit on top of the coins, themselves. Prices were a lot steeper than that since those spices came by sailing ship from so far away and could vary widely, depending on the piracy situation at the time. Butter, on the other hand, was something most people could afford quite easily, so he's likely not using as much as they'd have used.
This would have been a wonderful concoction made with the original, hop free ale. People of moderate means would have seen it during the Xmas feasting period. People of lesser means would have made do with lambs' wool, a concoction of ale and sliced apple, warmed by the fire.
This recipe with hopped ale sounds pretty disgusting. Were I to recreate it, I'd probably brew a batch of weaker ale without hops, allow it to work for a week to 10 days before turning it into buttered ale.
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