The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Brew \Brew\ (br[udd]), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Brewed (br[udd]d);
   p. pr. & vb. n. Brewing.] [OE. brewen, AS. bre['o]wan; akin
   to D. brouwen, OHG. priuwan, MHG. briuwen, br[=u]wen, G.
   brauen, Icel. brugga, Sw. brygga, Dan. brygge, and perh. to
   L. defrutum must boiled down, Gr. bry^ton (for fry^ton?) a
   kind of beer. The original meaning seems to have been to
   prepare by heat. [root]93. Cf. Broth, Bread.]
   1. To boil or seethe; to cook. [Obs.]
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   2. To prepare, as beer or other liquor, from malt and hops,
      or from other materials, by steeping, boiling, and
      fermentation. "She brews good ale." --Shak.
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   3. To prepare by steeping and mingling; to concoct.
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            Go, brew me a pottle of sack finely.  --Shak.
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   4. To foment or prepare, as by brewing; to contrive; to plot;
      to concoct; to hatch; as, to brew mischief.
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            Hence with thy brewed enchantments, foul deceiver!
                                                  --Milton.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Brewing \Brew"ing\, n.
   1. The act or process of preparing liquors which are brewed,
      as beer and ale.
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   2. The quantity brewed at once.
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            A brewing of new beer, set by old beer. --Bacon.
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   3. A mixing together.
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            I am not able to avouch anything for certainty, such
            a brewing and sophistication of them they make.
                                                  --Holland.
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   4. (Naut.) A gathering or forming of a storm or squall,
      indicated by thick, dark clouds.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

brewing
    n 1: the production of malt beverages (as beer or ale) from malt
         and hops by grinding and boiling them and fermenting the
         result with yeast

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

106 Moby Thesaurus words for "brewing":
   about to be, already in sight, approaching, at hand, baking,
   barbecuing, basting, boiling, braising, broil, broiling, catering,
   close, close at hand, coming, cookery, cooking, cuisine,
   culinary science, domestic science, drench, drenching, ducking,
   dunking, forthcoming, frying, future, gathering, going on,
   going to happen, grilling, home economics, imbruement, imbuement,
   immediate, imminent, impendent, impending, impregnation,
   in danger imminent, in embryo, in hand, in preparation, in process,
   in production, in progress, in prospect, in reserve, in store,
   in the cards, in the offing, in the oven, in the wind,
   in the works, in view, infiltration, infusion, injection, instant,
   leaching, lixiviation, looming, lowering, lurking, maceration,
   menacing, near, near at hand, nearing, nutrition, on stream,
   on the anvil, on the fire, on the horizon, on the way, overhanging,
   pan-broiling, percolation, permeation, poaching, preparing,
   pulping, roasting, saturation, sauteing, searing, seething,
   shirring, simmering, soak, soakage, soaking, sopping, souse,
   sousing, steeping, stewing, that will be, threatening, to come,
   toasting, under construction, under revision, under way, upcoming,
   waiting