small beer, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

small beer n.

[SE small beer, weak, inferior quality beer]

1. inferior things, worthless or second-rate matters; also chronicle small beer, to record insignificant events.

1604		Shakespeare Othello II i: To suckle fools and chronicle small beer.
c.1790		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘The Remonstrance’ Works (1794) III 88: But not the Laurel – honour much too high [...] And therefore cannot chronicle Small Beer.
1840		R. Barham ‘Row in an Omnibus’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842 ) 217: Fal-de-ral-tit is considered ‘Small Beer’.
1848		Thackeray Vanity Fair III 281: She [...] made some jokes suitable to the occasion and the small-beer.
1880		Academy 25 Sept. 219: Two such chroniclers of small beer as Boswell and Erskine.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 6 Jan. 36/2: Then, having penned this seductive picture for sundowners to wander at – he borrows a boy for mate, and is off with a swag to sundown. The rest is 170 pages of excellent small beer.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
1945		D. Bolster Roll On My Twelve 26: You’re small beer as a seaman, till you knows yer job.
1957		C. MacInnes City of Spades (1964) 132: ‘He’s not in court, man — was quite a break.’ ‘You small beer to him, Peter, it must be.’.
1978		(con. 1940s) J.G. Farrell Singapore Grip 155: The Mayfair is small beer compared with some of the others.
1997		(con. 1960s) A. Frewin London Blues 229: Pretty small beer you’d think for the Old Bailey, eh? Pretty fucking small beer.
2005		W. McGuire Surviving Armageddon 112: The rumblings of Montserrat’s Soufriere Hills volcano may be pretty small beer compared to the great super-eruptions of the past.

2. (Aus.) self-importance.

1895

Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 76: Small Beer, self importance.

In phrases

think small beer of (v.) (also think small coals of) [SE small coals, slack, useless for a blazing fire]

to have a low opinion of.

1822		Bristol Mercury 8 June 3/3: [I]t must be allowed that the artist does nor think small beer of himself.
1825		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I 32: He was not thought small beer of.
1834		Southey Doctor 342/1: The Author does not, in vulgar parlance, think Small Beer of himself.
1846		Bradford Obs. 10 Dec. 7/1: Merit like mine, to the worth of a swine, / People think small beer.
1851		Lytton My Novel (1884–5) I Bk IV 287: Sum ’un who does not think small beer of hisself.
1855		Thackeray Newcomes II 10: She thinks small beer of painters, J.J. – well, we don’t think small beer of ourselves, my noble friend.
1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 219: small beer ‘he doesn’t think small-beer of himself,’ i.e., he has a great opinion of his own importance. small coals is also used in the same sense.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1866		Highland Wkly News (Hillsboro, OH) 21 June 1/4: Mr D.W. Voorhees [...] does, by no manner of means, think small beer of himself.
1868		Reade & Boucicault Foul Play I 160: Don’t tell him, sir, for he doesn’t think small beer of himself.
1872		Standard (London) 4 Sept. 5/3: The Italians think no small beer of the Bersaglieri, and the Bersaglieri think no small beer of themselves.
1881		Notts. Guardian 28 Jan. 10/6: Old carpets may be used, but evidently he thinks small beer of such like covering.
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 119: Authors [...] who think no small beer of themslves, on the other side of the herring pond.
1896		G.F. Northall Warwickshire Word-Book 218: Small-beer. ‘He does not think small-beer of himself’ = he thinks himself of great importance.
1904		Dly Item (Great Bend, KS) 10 Mar. 2/5: ‘Some people [...] try to run down wills [...] and think small beer of witnesses’.