beer, brew, brewsky,suds

[ostap77]

What is opinion on different words for beer?

[jamiep]

My quick thoughts.
Brew and brewsky are ok if understood as part of the whole context, but as a British person "brew" makes me think of tea first.

"Suds" definitely makes me think of soap so I'm not sure it works.

[BobK]

What is opinion on different words for beer?

Du côté de chez... nous autres

B Eng doesn't typically use 'brew' to refer to beer - though, while drinking, someone might say 'That's a good brew'. When you say 'Time for a brew', though, you mean a cup of tea. 'Brewsky' is unknown over here, as far as I know, as is 'suds'.

People usually use measures (Imperial, of course) to refer to alcoholic drinks. 'A pint' means beer (by default - it would mean, say, cider, for someone who was known to drink cider). The term 'a swift half' is used to refer to any measure of any alcoholic drink - the precise meaning of 'half a pint of beer' is a conventional euphemism. Someone might say to a colleague 'Fancy a swift half on the way home after work?'

To refer to lager (particularly Fosters or Castlemaine 4X) many people take a leaf out of Barry Humphries' book (he's an Australian comedian) and call it 'the amber fluid'. Recently it has morphed into 'the amber nectar', which seems to me a bit tautological. An Australian friend of mine used to refer to cans of lager as 'tinnies', which could be used to refer to their contents: 'Shall we stop off for a few tinnies mate?'

Verbs that idiomatically collocate with drink in large amounts include 'sink' and 'put away'. Drinking swiftly is 'downing'.

At the end of a night of drinking, your friends might 'pour you into a taxi'.

b

[ostap77]

Du côté de chez... nous autres

B Eng doesn't typically use 'brew' to refer to beer - though, while drinking, someone might say 'That's a good brew'. When you say 'Time for a brew', though, you mean a cup of tea. 'Brewsky' is unknown over here, as far as I know, as is 'suds'.

People usually use measures (Imperial, of course) to refer to alcoholic drinks. 'A pint' means beer (by default - it would mean, say, cider, for someone who was known to drink cider). The term 'a swift half' is used to refer to any measure of any alcoholic drink - the precise meaning of 'half a pint of beer' is a conventional euphemism. Someone might say to a colleague 'Fancy a swift half on the way home after work?'

To refer to lager (particularly Fosters or Castlemaine 4X) many people take a leaf out of Barry Humphries' book (he's an Australian comedian) and call it 'the amber fluid'. Recently it has morphed into 'the amber nectar', which seems to me a bit tautological. An Australian friend of mine used to refer to cans of lager as 'tinnies', which could be used to refer to their contents: 'Shall we stop off for a few tinnies mate?'

Verbs that idiomatically collocate with drink in large amounts include 'sink' and 'put away'. Drinking swiftly is 'downing'.

At the end of a night of drinking, your friends might 'pour you into a taxi'.

b

Would "swift half'' and "pour into a taxi" be British or it's widespread?

[BobK]

Other teachers: ostap77's question looks as though it's for me, but it's not. Those expressions are common in Br. Eng, but I don't know if they're 'widespread' in the rest of the world.

b

[Ouisch]

When I saw the topic header, I immediately thought "beer." All of the words mentioned are common parlance for beer in AmE.