diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/dev-cmd/tests.rb b/Library/Homebrew/dev-cmd/tests.rb
index ef58dd8bd7..6725bd3f48 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/dev-cmd/tests.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/dev-cmd/tests.rb
@@ -48,7 +48,6 @@ module Homebrew
       ENV.delete("HOMEBREW_NO_COLOR")
       ENV.delete("HOMEBREW_VERBOSE")
       ENV.delete("HOMEBREW_DEBUG")
-      ENV.delete("VERBOSE")
       ENV.delete("HOMEBREW_CASK_OPTS")
       ENV.delete("HOMEBREW_TEMP")
       ENV.delete("HOMEBREW_NO_GITHUB_API")
@@ -68,6 +67,9 @@ module Homebrew
       # to use GPG to sign by default
       ENV["HOME"] = "#{HOMEBREW_LIBRARY_PATH}/test"
 
+      # Print verbose output when requesting debug or verbose output.
+      ENV["HOMEBREW_VERBOSE_TESTS"] = "1" if args.debug? || args.verbose?
+
       if args.coverage?
         ENV["HOMEBREW_TESTS_COVERAGE"] = "1"
         FileUtils.rm_f "test/coverage/.resultset.json"
diff --git a/Library/Homebrew/test/spec_helper.rb b/Library/Homebrew/test/spec_helper.rb
index da055f6c4e..df5a9906d3 100644
--- a/Library/Homebrew/test/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/Library/Homebrew/test/spec_helper.rb
@@ -201,7 +201,7 @@ RSpec.configure do |config|
     @__stderr = $stderr.clone
 
     begin
-      if (example.metadata.keys & [:focus, :byebug]).empty? && !ENV.key?("VERBOSE_TESTS")
+      if (example.metadata.keys & [:focus, :byebug]).empty? && !ENV.key?("HOMEBREW_VERBOSE_TESTS")
         $stdout.reopen(File::NULL)
         $stderr.reopen(File::NULL)
       end