What exactly is a malt beverage? alcohol related?

A malt beverage is a fermented drink where the primary ingredient is the grain of the barley plant, which is malted before it is processed. ... Most beers are malt beverages except a few that are fermented from something other than barley malt, such as gluten-free beers made from sorghum malt.

In the US, each state has it own rules, but there are generally pretty specific rules for what can be called beer and products that don't meet that but have alcohol (and don't meet the laws for liquor) are called malt beverages. This used to be mainly for malt liquor, but now with all of the other types of beverage that are like beer but aren't beer the term is much more commonplace.