diff --git a/Makefile.config.in b/Makefile.config.in
index d4953b52..fccf63b3 100644
--- a/Makefile.config.in
+++ b/Makefile.config.in
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ LIBLZMA_LIBS = @LIBLZMA_LIBS@
 SQLITE3_LIBS = @SQLITE3_LIBS@
 bash = @bash@
 bindir = @bindir@
+bro = @bro@
 datadir = @datadir@
 datarootdir = @datarootdir@
 docdir = @docdir@
diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index 34dcd6b2..21ca78af 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -128,6 +128,7 @@ NEED_PROG(gzip, gzip)
 NEED_PROG(xz, xz)
 AC_PATH_PROG(dot, dot)
 AC_PATH_PROG(pv, pv, pv)
+NEED_PROG(bro, bro)
 
 
 # Test that Perl has the open/fork feature (Perl 5.8.0 and beyond).
diff --git a/release.nix b/release.nix
index e61e81bd..a266af7c 100644
--- a/release.nix
+++ b/release.nix
@@ -24,7 +24,8 @@ let
         inherit officialRelease;
 
         buildInputs =
-          [ curl bison flex perl libxml2 libxslt bzip2 xz
+          [ curl bison flex perl libxml2 libxslt
+            bzip2 xz brotli
             pkgconfig sqlite libsodium boehmgc
             docbook5 docbook5_xsl
             autoconf-archive
@@ -73,7 +74,10 @@ let
         src = tarball;
 
         buildInputs =
-          [ curl perl bzip2 xz openssl pkgconfig sqlite boehmgc ]
+          [ curl perl
+            bzip2 xz brotli
+            openssl pkgconfig sqlite boehmgc
+          ]
           ++ lib.optional (stdenv.isLinux || stdenv.isDarwin) libsodium
           ++ lib.optional (stdenv.isLinux || stdenv.isDarwin)
             (aws-sdk-cpp.override {
diff --git a/shell.nix b/shell.nix
index 4c160823..df0ad01d 100644
--- a/shell.nix
+++ b/shell.nix
@@ -6,7 +6,8 @@ with import <nixpkgs> {};
   name = "nix";
 
   buildInputs =
-    [ curl bison flex perl libxml2 libxslt bzip2 xz
+    [ curl bison flex perl libxml2 libxslt
+      bzip2 xz brotli
       pkgconfig sqlite libsodium boehmgc
       docbook5 docbook5_xsl
       autoconf-archive
diff --git a/src/libstore/download.cc b/src/libstore/download.cc
index 6567a4dc..d9b8fbc0 100644
--- a/src/libstore/download.cc
+++ b/src/libstore/download.cc
@@ -5,6 +5,8 @@
 #include "store-api.hh"
 #include "archive.hh"
 #include "s3.hh"
+#include "compression.hh"
+
 #ifdef ENABLE_S3
 #include <aws/core/client/ClientConfiguration.h>
 #endif
@@ -70,6 +72,8 @@ struct CurlDownloader : public Downloader
 
         struct curl_slist * requestHeaders = 0;
 
+        std::string encoding;
+
         DownloadItem(CurlDownloader & downloader, const DownloadRequest & request)
             : downloader(downloader), request(request)
         {
@@ -127,6 +131,7 @@ struct CurlDownloader : public Downloader
                 auto ss = tokenizeString<vector<string>>(line, " ");
                 status = ss.size() >= 2 ? ss[1] : "";
                 result.data = std::make_shared<std::string>();
+                encoding = "";
             } else {
                 auto i = line.find(':');
                 if (i != string::npos) {
@@ -142,7 +147,8 @@ struct CurlDownloader : public Downloader
                             debug(format("shutting down on 200 HTTP response with expected ETag"));
                             return 0;
                         }
-                    }
+                    } else if (name == "content-encoding")
+                        encoding = trim(string(line, i + 1));;
                 }
             }
             return realSize;
@@ -268,7 +274,18 @@ struct CurlDownloader : public Downloader
             {
                 result.cached = httpStatus == 304;
                 done = true;
-                callSuccess(success, failure, const_cast<const DownloadResult &>(result));
+
+                /* Ad hoc support for brotli, since curl doesn't do
+                   this yet. */
+                try {
+                    if (encoding == "br")
+                        result.data = decompress("br", *result.data);
+
+                    callSuccess(success, failure, const_cast<const DownloadResult &>(result));
+                } catch (...) {
+                    done = true;
+                    callFailure(failure, std::current_exception());
+                }
             } else {
                 Error err =
                     (httpStatus == 404 || code == CURLE_FILE_COULDNT_READ_FILE) ? NotFound :
diff --git a/src/libutil/compression.cc b/src/libutil/compression.cc
index a3bbb517..723b072a 100644
--- a/src/libutil/compression.cc
+++ b/src/libutil/compression.cc
@@ -89,6 +89,11 @@ static ref<std::string> decompressBzip2(const std::string & in)
     }
 }
 
+static ref<std::string> decompressBrotli(const std::string & in)
+{
+    return make_ref<std::string>(runProgram(BRO, true, {"-d"}, in));
+}
+
 ref<std::string> compress(const std::string & method, const std::string & in)
 {
     StringSink ssink;
@@ -106,6 +111,8 @@ ref<std::string> decompress(const std::string & method, const std::string & in)
         return decompressXZ(in);
     else if (method == "bzip2")
         return decompressBzip2(in);
+    else if (method == "br")
+        return decompressBrotli(in);
     else
         throw UnknownCompressionMethod(format("unknown compression method ‘%s’") % method);
 }
diff --git a/src/libutil/local.mk b/src/libutil/local.mk
index cac5c879..0721b21c 100644
--- a/src/libutil/local.mk
+++ b/src/libutil/local.mk
@@ -9,3 +9,5 @@ libutil_SOURCES := $(wildcard $(d)/*.cc)
 libutil_LDFLAGS = $(LIBLZMA_LIBS) -lbz2 -pthread $(OPENSSL_LIBS)
 
 libutil_LIBS = libformat
+
+libutil_CXXFLAGS = -DBRO=\"$(bro)\"