Crossword Genius

Beer drained by Republicans – it's bitter! (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

brrr

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'bitter' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'beer drained by republicans' is the wordplay.
'drained' means to remove the middle letters.
'by' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'republicans' becomes 'rr' (political abbreviation for republican repeated).
'beer' with its centre removed is 'br'.
'br'+'rr'='BRRR'

'it's' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for brrr that I've seen before include "How freezing" , "Cold person's exclamation" , "I'm definitely not hot" , "Complaint about cold" , "Indication of iciness" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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