Green’s Dictionary of Slang

barley n.1

also barley juice, ...oil, …pop, …water, …wine
[SE barley + juice n.1 (3a)/pop n.1 (2a); late 19C+ is US Midwest/black/campus use]

beer.

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Hart. Anat. Ur. I v 46: The women... are not so busie... with the strong barley-water as our British women [F&H].
[UK]J. Phillips Maronides (1678) VI 19: Few men by gods though lov’d as dearly / As men themselves love juice of Barley / [...] / Have cause to brag of their return.
[UK]Pope Mother Gin 25: Two large casks of fatt’ning Barley Oil (Strong drink is called in the Canting Dialect Oil of barley.
[UK]W. Forbes Dominie Deposed 13: Still girding at the barley juice, And oft gets drunk.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd edn).
[UK]Dying Groans of Sir John Barleycorn 2: My last wishes and dying words; with my kind caution to my beloved friends and companions the innumerable tribe of Barley-bibbers.
[UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[Ire]‘A Real Paddy’ Real Life in Ireland 148: Bob Johnston, reeling ripe with the barley juice.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
[UK]‘The Sedgfield Frolic’ in Rum Ti Tum! in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 178: The tune was juice of barley, / Which made them dance merrily.
[UK]Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
[UK]‘William Juniper’ True Drunkard’s Delight 229: Strong ale is variously called [...] nappy, stingo, barley-wine.
[US]Current Sl. I:1 3/1: Barley water Beer.
[US]D. Claerbaut Black Jargon in White America 57: n. beer: He’s got some barley.
[US]L. Dills CB Slanguage 186: Barley Pop: beer.
[US]Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 1: barley pop – beer.
[US]Eble Sl. and Sociability 126: Beer is the beverage of choice, and it is variously called [...] brewdog, barley pop, icy pop, and cornflakes in a can.

SE in slang uses

In compounds

barleybree (n.) [15C bree, broth or juice in which anything has been boiled or marinated]

(orig. Scot.) strong ale.

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[UK]Burns O Willie Brew’d in Works (1842) 164/1: The cock may craw, the day may daw, And aye we’ll taste the barley bree.
[Aus]Bulletin (Sydney) 4 Apr. 6/1: For a trifling bit of rent he’ll lease to a working man a tip-top bran new house got up in a novel plan, complete in every way, with comfort in every form – a regular paradise it is to shelter in every storm, hot water laid on in pipes ready for toddy or tea, and a tap or two from which you can draw the ‘barley bree’.
barley broth (n.)

strong ale .

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[UK]‘Philip Foulface’ Bacchus’ Bountie in Harleian Misc. II (1809) 273: Goody Goodale [...] standing stoutly in his opinion, that the barley-broath above all other, did beare away the bell, and neither grape nor berry might be compared to the maiestie of the mault .
[UK]F. Beaumont Answer of Ale to the Challenge of Sack in Chalmers Eng. Poets (1810) VI 208/2: Ale’s the true liquor of life / Men liv’d long in health / [...] Whilst barley-broth was rife.
[US] ‘Round, Boys, Indeed’ in Rollins Pepysian Garland (1922) 447: The tapster may not loose his share, though barley broth be nere so deare.
, [UK]Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
[UK]Lex. Balatronicum.
[UK]Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
W. Black Judith Shakespeare III 133: When the barley-broth be warm enough Cicely shall bring thee out a dish of it.
barley cap (n.)

drunkeness.

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[UK]E. Guilpin Skialetheia (1878) 67: Some weeuil, mault-worme, barly-cap [OED].
[UK]R. Cotgrave Dict. of Fr. and Eng. Tongues n.p.: Forbeu [...] pot-shotten, whose fudling or barley Cap is on.
O. Heywood in Yorkshire Diaries (Surt.) II 262: He never wore a cap, unlesse it was a barley-cap [OED].

In phrases

find out where the barley grows (v.) (also know where the barley grows)

(W.I., Gren./Trin.) to be brought to one’s senses, to realize what is really going on, usu. in a warning or threatening sense.

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[WI]Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.