In advance of beer production (6)
I believe the answer is:
before
'in advance' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'of beer production' is the wordplay.
'production' indicates anagramming the letters.
'of'+'beer'='ofbeer'
'ofbeer' with letters rearranged gives 'BEFORE'.
(Other definitions for before that I've seen before include "In front - earlier" , "Earlier in time" , "In front of (something)" , "During the period preceding" , "On a previous occasion" .)