Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a meal.

1897		Kipling ‘Slaves of the Lamp’ Pt I in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 58: He came back [...] to find McTurk, Stalky [...] enjoying an unlimited ‘brew’ — coffee, cocoa, buns, new bread hot and steaming, sardine, sausage, ham-and-tongue paste, pilchards, three jams, and at least as many pounds of Devonshire cream.
1929		Kipling ‘Satisfaction of a Gentleman’ in Complete Stalky & Co. (1987) 247: Pussy and Tertius said they would be happy to attend the brew.

2. a pot or drink of tea; thus rush a brew v., to make a pot of tea.

1898		Portsmouth Eve. News 6 Oct. 7/6: The properties are looked upon as the strong tea of the brew.
1901		Portsmouth Eve. News 2 July 2/5: Forty Soldiers Poisoned [...] Only the men who had drunk of a particular brew of tea were affected.
1911		T.A. Dorgan ‘Silk Hat Harry’ in El Paso Herald (TX) 14 July 15: Hey Bunk drop that brew a minute and listen.
1916		R. Service ‘A Pot of Tea’ in Rhymes of a Red Cross Man 127: Tonight, by Fritz’s camp-fire, won’t I ’ave a gorgeous brew / (For fightin’ mustn’t interfere with Tea).
1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 466: Rush a Brew. Make tea.
1933		M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 6: I sip my brew and munch my tommy.
1948		K.B. Poole ‘The Gift’ in Lehmann Penguin New Writing No. 33 157: Better ’ave another brew.
1955		D. Niland Shiralee 122: Feel like a mug of brew?
1956		C. Lee diary 13 Aug. in Eight Bells & Top Masts (2001) 8: The Second Mate’s Scotch and he came down for a brew.
1964		R. Helmer Stag Party 80: He poured the tea into the mugs [...] ‘Who’s for a brew?’.
1975		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 31: Do you like Chinese tea? I’ve just put a brew in motion.
1982		A. Bleasdale ‘Jobs for the Boys’ Boys from the Blackstuff (1985) [TV script] 45: Get a brew on Loggo, will you.
1986		C. Bowles G’DAY 44: It is smoke-oh and they are sitting down having a brew.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Brew. 2. A drink of tea or coffee.
1995		J. Cameron Vinnie Got Blown Away 90: Say what you like about the women welfare, they definitely made a better brew.
2000		N. Barlay Crumple Zone 73: Could murder a brew [...] lovely cup tea.
2008		(ref. to 1971) F. Dennis ‘Old Bailey’ Homeless in my Heart 184: Where a squealer finds ground glass / Has sweetened his morning brew.
2017		V. McDermid Insidious Intent (2018) 29: ‘Morning, skipper [...] shall I make us all a brew?’.

3. (US) any form of home-made concoction.

1904

J. London ‘The Hyperborean Brew’ in Faith of man and Other Stories 🌐 In Tummasook’s copper kettle I mixed three quarts of wheat flour with five of molasses, and to this I added of water twenty quarts [...] When the brew was strong enough [...] I filled the kerosene can with it.

4. (US, also brewster) beer, ale, esp. in the UK Carlsberg Special Brew.

1895		Kansas Agitator (Garnett, KS) 3 Jan. 1/1: As a prohibitionist [he] very properly declined [...] the invitation to feast at the ‘brew factory’ as it was called on the invitation.
1902		Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 23 Mar. 42/1: [advert] The Perfect Brew. Blue Ribbon Bottled Beer.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 4 Feb. 4/8: A beery ballad — [...] For we like a man like you who is partial to his brew.
1907		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 20: I never hung around saloons hiding the brew.
1919		H.C. Witwer Smile A Minute 184: On account of him comin’ back we can’t get no brew.
1925		G.H. Mullin Adventures of a Scholar Tramp 39: With the second scoop, I had gulped all the vile brew I could stomach.
1930		G. Milburn ‘The Boomer Shack’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 64: They meant, without fear Pilsner beer / Was the brew on tap that day.
1940		J.G. Brandon Gang War 115: Sipping at the damnable brew for which he had been charged sixpence.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 186: I was just thinkin about goin over to Choy’s and lappin up some brew [...] You think you can buy me off with beer? Come up here and needle me all afternoon and then buy me a couple of brews and make it all all right.
1966		M. Rumaker Exit 3 and Other Stories 38: Christ, that’s good brew.
1974		L. Kwesi Johnson ‘Five Nights of Bleeding’ in Voices of the Living Dead (1983) 31: It was a night named Friday / when everyone was high on brew.
1986		Eble Campus Sl. Nov. 2: brewster – beer.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 156: He [...] belted back some brew.
1995		(con. 1985–90) P. Bourjois In Search of Respect 194: We be smoking cheeba; drinking brew; hanging out on the Deuce.
1999		(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 21: Give me a brew [i.e. Special Brew], Floyd.
1999		N. Cohn Yes We Have No 247: ‘A brew will see me right’ [...] and a can of McEwan’s is handed to him.
2000		in W. Shaw Westsiders 170: I’m sleepin’ through — down the brew, this weed has got me fadin’.
2009		R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 94: I might have some [Special] Brew left in the fridge.
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 210: Gaskins went to the kitchen to find that brew.
2011		Intelligent Life Spring 142/1: Fancy a brew?
2011		F. Bill ‘Coon Hunter’s Noir’ in Crimes in Southern Indiana [ebook] They hunt and toss back brews.
2018		J.-P. Jordan Joys of War 26: [A] decent man who would come have a brew and sit and chat to you.

5. (US) a pot or cup of coffee.

1917		Burroughs Oakdale Affair 74: Oh, my heart it is just achin’ / For a little bite of bacon, / A hunk of bread, a little mug of brew.
1930		G. Milburn ‘Hungry Man’s Canyon’ in Hobo’s Hornbook 218: Oh, my belly is just achin’ / For a couple of strips of bacon, / A hunk of punk and a little pot of brew.
1935		O.O. McIntyre New York Day by Day 8 June [synd. col.] Harry Leon Wilson quit drinking coffee for two years, then one morning downed in a row six cups of hefty brew and did he feel elegant.
1987		(con. 1967) E. Spencer Welcome to Vietnam (1989) 71: I take a cup of brew and go sit on top of my bunker.
1990		see sense 2.

6. home-made wine.

1964

P. Terson Night to Make the Angels Weep (1967) I x: You’ll drink in this house when you taste my Aunt Ada’s plum, mate. She’s the tops round here at brew, I’m telling you.

7. (Can./US/N.Z. prison, also homebrew) illicitly brewed alcohol.

1955		(con. 1920s) W. Broonzy Big Bill’s Blues 42: [T]hey started to call them ‘house rent parties’, because they sold chicken, pig feet, home brew, chittlins [sic], moonshine whisky.
1963		B. Crump ‘One of Us’ in Best of Barry Crump (1974) 134: He [...] poured him a dirty glass of home-brew.
1971		Ed Bullins ‘Dandy’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 84: Them sisters of mine have got some home brew ready.
1977		E. Bunker Animal Factory 76: Brother T is holding some weights and there’s some brew in the equipment room.
1982		G. Newbold Big Huey 100: I drank more brews there [i.e. in Paremoremo prison] than anywhere else in my sentence. Home-brews are usually made out of a mixture of yeast, sugar and water, with anything fermentable used as a base. Raisins, prunes, fresh fruit, rice, potatoes, and tealeaves are all popular.
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 74: [S]ometimes they raid the workshops and get a few brews and things like that, you know, they’re incidental little things, brews don’t do any harm.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Brew. 1. Illegal prison-made alcoholic beverage. Some recipes include (a) A fermented mixture of Coca Cola and vegemite (a yeast source), (b) Orange juice, vegemite, sugar and black tea, (c) bootpolish filtered through a sieve (e.g. bread) to isolate alcohol. A variety of other concoctions utilise psychotropic properties of chemicals found in telephone cleaner, disinfectant, etc.
1992		Bentley & Corbett Prison Sl. 70: Brew and Home Brew […] homemade alcoholic beverage. Also used to indicate legal, manufactured liquor that has been smuggled into the prison.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 10: When’s the brew gonna be done cookin’?
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 29/1: brew (or homebrew) n. alcohol illegally produced by prison inmates.
2010		A. Steinberg Running the Books 153: An orange opeel could be fermented into a nasty little batch of liquor, ‘homebrew’.