American's ready, minimally, to embrace Brendan — it's hard stuff (6)
I believe the answer is:
cement
'stuff' is the definition.
(I know that cement is a type of fill)
'american's ready minimally to embrace brendan it's hard' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'brendan' could be 'me' (where the crossword setter is 'Brendan') and 'me' is present in the answer.
'it' could be 't' (abbreviation. e.g. in 'tis) and 't' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cement that I've seen before include "Stuff that binds or bonds" , "Stick together - substance used by a builder" , "Firmly fix" , "Ingredient of concrete" , "Union" .)