(English) Beer-Maker [Middle English brewer(e, Old English breówan, to brew]

(German) One who came from Bremen (by the seashore), in Germany.

(English) One who brewed beer or ale.

1. Bruyere, French, a heath. This was a frequent name in Norman times. The principal English family were settled in Devonshire at the time of the Domesd. survey, and founded Tor Abbey. In after times they impressed their name upon Teign Brewer and Buckland Brewer in that county, as also upon Temple Brewer, co. Lincoln. Among those of the name in France, Thibaut de la Bruyere, the crusader, stands conspicuous. The orthography is much varied, the principal forms in the H.R. being Brewer, Brewere, de Bruario, de la Bruere, Brywer, de Brueris. 2. The occupation. In the H.R. it occurs in the Latin and Norman-French forms of Braciator and Le Bracer. The business of brewing was formerly carried on by women, and hence the Anglo-Saxon feminine termination stre, in Brewster, in the H.R. we find the name of one Clarissa la Braceresse. In the XV. cent. the name as well as the occupation was often written Berebrewer.

A brewer of malt liquor.

1. from Brovera or Brueria, now Breviare near Caen; a family seated in Devon at the Conquest, and from which descended Henry de Briwere, t. Stephen; Henry B., who held five fees in Devon 1165; and William Briwere, a great baron temp. John. William B. in 1165 was a baron in Notts, and Ralph B. had estates Leicester. 2. from the English translation of Braceator or Braceor. See Brazier, Bracher.

From the French, Bruyère; a personal name William Briwere, a favourite of Hen. II., descended from Drogo de Bevreire, a Fleming, who held lands in Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Yorkshire, in the Domesday Book, Briwer in Rotuli de Oblatis et Finibus, King John

Brewer: does not necessarily imply that the ancestor of the Brewers was one who brewed a peck of malt, for it comes from Bruyères in Seine-et-Oise.

Brazier: It was not till the close of the fifteenth century that the hop was introduced into England by the Flemings.

“Hops, Reformation, baize and beer, Came to England all in one year.”

Previously ale had been brewed with other ingredients, as wormwood. Mead, or metheglin, was largely drunk. Hence Browse - i.e., at the brewhouse. Chamier is from the medieval Latin cambarius, a brewer.