How to make potions in Minecraft
Brewing looks complicated because the modifiers are separate from the ingredients. Once you see it as a base, then an effect, then optional modifiers, the whole system fits on one page.
What you need first
A brewing stand takes one blaze rod and three cobblestone. Blaze rods come from blazes in nether fortresses, so the nether trip is unavoidable.
You also want blaze powder for fuel, which is a blaze rod in a crafting grid for two powder. One powder brews twenty batches, so a handful lasts a long time.
Glass bottles are three glass in a V shape, and you fill them by using them on water or a cauldron. Brewing three at once costs the same ingredient as brewing one, so always fill all three slots.
The base: awkward potion
Every potion starts the same way. Put water bottles in the three bottom slots, blaze powder in the fuel slot, and a nether wart in the ingredient slot. That gives awkward potion, which does nothing on its own and is the base for nearly everything.
Nether wart grows on soul sand and is found in nether fortresses and bastions. Bring some back and farm it, because you will need one per batch forever.
Adding the effect
One ingredient into an awkward potion gives the effect:
Sugar Swiftness
Rabbit's Foot Leaping
Blaze Powder Strength
Glistering Melon Healing
Spider Eye Poison
Ghast Tear Regeneration
Magma Cream Fire Resistance
Pufferfish Water Breathing
Golden Carrot Night Vision
Turtle Shell Slow Falling
Phantom Membrane Slow FallingTwo do not need awkward potion at all. A fermented spider eye in a water bottle gives weakness, and a rabbit's foot line and the invisibility line both come from corrupting an existing potion, which is the next section.
The three modifiers
Redstone dust extends the duration and removes any level increase. Glowstone dust raises the level and shortens the duration. They are mutually exclusive, so adding one wipes the other.
Gunpowder turns any potion into a splash potion you throw, and dragon's breath then turns a splash potion into a lingering one that leaves a cloud. Add gunpowder last, after the effect and after redstone or glowstone.
Fermented spider eye corrupts a potion into its opposite. Night vision becomes invisibility, healing becomes harming, swiftness becomes slowness, leaping becomes slowness. It is the only route to several of the useful ones.
Brewing on a server
Potions matter far more in multiplayer than in single player, because most PvP is decided by whether you brought fire resistance, strength and healing. Servers that run 1.8 style combat lean on splash potions especially heavily.
Check the rules before stocking up. Plenty of servers disable specific potions in arenas or cap the level, and some economy servers sell them outright, which is often cheaper than farming blaze rods. Our PvP server list is where that matters most, and the survival list covers the servers where you will be brewing for yourself.