diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/utils/homebrew_vars.rb b/Library/Homebrew/utils/homebrew_vars.rb
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..057633b776
--- /dev/null
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/utils/homebrew_vars.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env ruby
+
+ENV.keys.each do |key| 
+  if key =~ /^HOMEBREW.*/
+    # Remove any HOMEBREW.* vars containing white-space which causes a problem for "env -i" command via string.
+    #
+    # (Any user supplied HOMEBREW.* vars with valid white-space need to be hard-coded in 'bin/brew')
+    #
+    puts "#{key}=#{ENV[key]}" unless ENV[key].split(' ').length > 1
+  end
+end
diff --git a/bin/brew b/bin/brew
index b5fb9af047..710ef7e5c3 100755
--- a/bin/brew
+++ b/bin/brew
@@ -46,15 +46,22 @@ HOMEBREW_LIBRARY="$HOMEBREW_REPOSITORY/Library"
 
 if [[ -n "$HOMEBREW_ENV_FILTERING" ]]
 then
-  env -i \
-    HOME="$HOME" \
+
+  homebrew_vars=$("$HOMEBREW_LIBRARY/Homebrew/utils/homebrew_vars.rb")
+
+  cmd_str="/usr/bin/env -i \
+    HOME=$HOME \
     PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin \
-    TERM="$TERM" \
-    HOMEBREW_BREW_FILE="$HOMEBREW_BREW_FILE" \
-    HOMEBREW_PREFIX="$HOMEBREW_PREFIX" \
-    HOMEBREW_REPOSITORY="$HOMEBREW_REPOSITORY" \
-    HOMEBREW_LIBRARY="$HOMEBREW_LIBRARY" \
-    /bin/bash "$HOMEBREW_LIBRARY/Homebrew/brew.sh" "$@"
+    TERM=$TERM \
+    HOMEBREW_BREW_FILE=$HOMEBREW_BREW_FILE \
+    HOMEBREW_PREFIX=$HOMEBREW_PREFIX \
+    HOMEBREW_REPOSITORY=$HOMEBREW_REPOSITORY \
+    HOMEBREW_LIBRARY=$HOMEBREW_LIBRARY \
+    $homebrew_vars \
+    /bin/bash $HOMEBREW_LIBRARY/Homebrew/brew.sh $@"
+    
+  command $cmd_str
+  
 else
   source "$HOMEBREW_LIBRARY/Homebrew/brew.sh"
 fi