Brewing

Brewing is how potions and splash potions are made in Minecraft.

General Guide to Brewing

Brewing stand with one top space for a reagent and bottom spaces for up to 3 bottles.

The player needs to craft a Brewing Stand and right-click on it to display the brewing interface. In the single space at the top, a reagent can be placed to distill into the bottom 3 spaces that can hold any combination of potion and/or water bottles. A brewing process starts when the top space and at least one of the bottom 3 spaces are filled, and is indicated by the column of bubbles to the left animating. At the same time, the brewing progress is indicated by how much the arrow bar on the right fills up. When the bar is full, the brewing process is complete. The reagent is consumed, and the contents of the glass bottles(s) will change depending on the reagent brewed into them. A single reagent can affect up to three potions or bottles on the bottom, so it is more efficient to fill all three slots before brewing.

As long as at least one of the three bottom spaces is filled, the brewing will continue, and additional bottles of water or potion can be added. However, if the reagent is removed, or the bottom 3 slots are emptied at any time during the process, the process will stop and nothing will have been brewed.

Alchemical Components

Alchemical components are supplies used to make potions. All except for the Cauldron are necessary for brewing.

Name	Icon	Use
Brewing Stand	Template:Grid	Used to add or mix reagents into glass bottles.
Cauldron	Template:Grid	Each one can hold a water bucket and 3 water bottles.
Glass Bottle	Template:Grid	Container for all kinds of potions.
Water Bottle	Template:Grid	The starting base for all potions. Made by filling a glass bottle from a cauldron or water source.

Reagents

Reagents are used in conjunction with the above components to produce a whole array of potions and splash potions.

Base Reagents

Base reagents are necessary to create potions and some base reagents can affect the duration and/or intensity of a potion when added later in the brewing cycle.

Name	Icon	Base reagent for	Effect
Fermented Spider Eye	Template:Grid	Potion of Weakness	Lessens positive effects Induces negative effects
Glowstone Dust	Template:Grid	Thick Potion	Increases effects Decreases potion duration
Nether Wart	Template:Grid	Awkward Potion	No effect when drank Required to brew most other potions
Redstone Dust	Template:Grid	Mundane Potion (Extended)	Decreases effects Increases potion duration
Gunpowder	Template:Grid	Any Splash Potion	Allows the potion to be thrown, applying its effect to mobs and players within 3-5 squares of where it hits

Secondary Ingredients

Secondary reagents imbue an Awkward Potion with a particular effect and do not affect potion duration or intensity. When brewed with a Water Bottle, any of these reagents will produce a Mundane Potion.

Name	Icon	Effect
Blaze Powder	Template:Grid	Strength
Ghast Tear	Template:Grid	Regeneration
Glistering Melon	Template:Grid	Instant Health
Magma Cream	Template:Grid	Fire Resistance
Spider Eye	Template:Grid	Poison
Sugar	Template:Grid	Speed

Tertiary Reagents

Tertiary reagents are reagents that create negative tertiary potions when followed by a Fermented Spider Eye.

Brew a	Icon	followed by a	Icon	for a Potion of
Blaze Powder or Ghast Tear	Template:Grid Template:Grid	Fermented Spider Eye	Template:Grid	Weakness
Sugar or Magma Cream	Template:Grid Template:Grid	Fermented Spider Eye	Template:Grid	Slowness
Spider Eye or Glistering Melon	Template:Grid Template:Grid	Fermented Spider Eye	Template:Grid	Harming

Potions

Primary

All primary potions are created by brewing a single reagent with a Water Bottle. Mundane Potion and Potion of Weakness can be combined with Gunpowder to create their throwable Splash Potion counterparts.

Potion	Ingredients	Brewing Setup	Effect	Precursor to
Template:Grid Awkward Potion	Nether Wart + Water Bottle	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	None	Potion of Healing Potion of Fire Resistance Potion of Poison Potion of Regeneration Potion of Strength Potion of Swiftness
Template:Grid Mundane Potion (Extended)	Redstone Dust + Water Bottle	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	None	Potion of Weakness (Extended)
Template:Grid Mundane Potion	Ghast Tear, Glistering Melon, Blaze Powder, Magma Cream, Sugar, or Spider Eye + Water Bottle	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	None	Potion of Weakness
Template:Grid Thick Potion	Glowstone Dust + Water Bottle	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	None	Potion of Weakness
Template:Grid Potion of Weakness	Fermented Spider Eye + Water Bottle	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Reduces all melee attacks by damage. Note that this makes the player unable to do any damage without a weapon.	Potion of Weakness (Extended)

Secondary

Secondary potions are created by brewing a reagent with a primary potion and can be combined with Gunpowder to create their throwable Splash Potion counterparts.

Positive

Potion	Ingredients	Brewing Setup	Effect	Duration (minutes)
Template:Grid Potion of Healing	Glistering Melon + Awkward Potion	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Restores per potion.	Instant
Template:Grid Potion of Fire Resistance	Magma Cream + Awkward Potion	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Gives immunity to damage from fire, lava, and ranged Blaze attacks.	3:00
Template:Grid Potion of Regeneration	Ghast Tear + Awkward Potion	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Restores health over time.	0:45
Template:Grid Potion of Strength	Blaze Powder + Awkward Potion	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Adds damage to all melee attacks, with or without weapons.	3:00
Template:Grid Potion of Swiftness	Sugar + Awkward Potion	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Increases player's movement speed, sprinting speed, and jumping length.	3:00

Negative

Potion	Ingredients	Brewing Setup	Effect	Duration (minutes)
Template:Grid Potion of Poison	Spider Eye + Awkward Potion	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Poisons the player for the given time, reducing the health to at most, at a rate of approximately every 1.5 seconds.	0:45
Template:Grid Potion of Weakness	Fermented Spider Eye + Awkward Potion or Thick Potion or Mundane Potion	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Reduces all melee attacks by damage.	1:30
Template:Grid Potion of Weakness (Extended)	Fermented Spider Eye + Mundane Potion (Extended)	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Reduces all melee attacks by damage.	4:00
Template:Grid Potion of Weakness (Extended)	Redstone Dust + Potion of Weakness	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Reduces all melee attacks by damage.	4:00

Tertiary

Tertiary potions are created by brewing a reagent with a secondary potion or another tertiary potion and can be combined with Gunpowder to create their throwable Splash Potion counterparts.

Positive

Potion	Ingredients	Brewing Setup	Effect	Duration (minutes)
Template:Grid Potion of Fire Resistance (Extended)	Redstone Dust + Potion of Fire Resistance	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Gives immunity to damage from fire, lava, and ranged Blaze attacks.	8:00
Template:Grid Potion of Healing II	Glowstone Dust + Potion of Healing	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Restores per potion.	Instant
Template:Grid Potion of Regeneration (Extended)	Redstone Dust + Potion of Regeneration	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Restores health over time.	2:00
Template:Grid Potion of Regeneration II	Glowstone Dust + Potion of Regeneration	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Restores health over time.	0:22
Template:Grid Potion of Strength (Extended)	Redstone Dust + Potion of Strength	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Adds damage to all melee attacks, with or without weapons.	8:00
Template:Grid Potion of Strength II	Glowstone Dust + Potion of Strength	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Adds damage to all melee attacks, with or without weapons.	1:30
Template:Grid Potion of Swiftness (Extended)	Redstone Dust + Potion of Swiftness	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Increases player's movement, sprinting speed, and jumping length.	8:00
Template:Grid Potion of Swiftness II	Glowstone Dust + Potion of Swiftness	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Increases player's movement, sprinting speed, and jumping length.	1:30

Negative

Potion	Ingredients	Brewing Setup	Effect	Duration (minutes)
Template:Grid Potion of Harming	Fermented Spider Eye + Potion of Healing or Potion of Poison	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Inflicts of damage.	Instant
Template:Grid Potion of Harming II	Fermented Spider Eye + Potion of Healing II or Potion of Poison II	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Inflicts of damage.	Instant
Template:Grid Potion of Harming II	Glowstone Dust + Potion of Harming	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Inflicts of damage.	Instant
Template:Grid Potion of Poison (Extended)	Redstone Dust + Potion of Poison	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Poisons the player for the given time, reducing the health to a minimum of , at a rate of approximately per two seconds.	2:00
Template:Grid Potion of Poison II	Glowstone Dust + Potion of Poison	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Poisons the player for the given time, reducing the health to a minimum of , at a rate of approximately per second.	0:22
Template:Grid Potion of Slowness	Fermented Spider Eye + Potion of Fire Resistance or Potion of Swiftness	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Player's movement is slowed to a crouch for the given time.	1:30
Template:Grid Potion of Slowness (Extended)	Redstone Dust + Potion of Slowness	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Player's movement is slowed to a crouch for the given time.	4:00
Template:Grid Potion of Weakness	Glowstone Dust + Potion of Weakness (Extended)	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Reduces all melee attacks by damage.	1:30
Template:Grid Potion of Weakness	Fermented Spider Eye + Potion of Strength or Potion of Regeneration	Template:Grid/Brewing Stand	Reduces all melee attacks by damage.	1:30

Recipes

Despite the complicated web of potions that can be brewed from other potions, to brew a specific potion from the water bottle most efficiently the options are quite simple. The following table gives the most efficient way to brew each potion without wasting extra ingredients. Cases where the order of ingredients is irrelevant or two different ingredients are interchangeable are included. The potion of weakness, the only one which can be brewed without starting with a nether wart, can still be brewed from an awkward potion if the player wishes to convert all water bottles to awkward potions in preparation for brewing.

Weakness > fermented spider eye
Weakness E > fermented spider eye and redstone (if brewed from an awkward potion the fermented spider eye must be added first)
Strength > nether wart > blaze powder
Strength E > nether wart > blaze powder > redstone
Strength II > nether wart > blaze powder > glowstone
Regeneration > nether wart > ghast tear
Regeneration E > nether wart > ghast tear > redstone
Regeneration II > nether wart > ghast tear > glowstone
Swiftness > nether wart > sugar
Swiftness E > nether wart > sugar > redstone
Swiftness II > nether wart > sugar > glowstone
Slowness > nether wart > sugar or magma cream > fermented spider eye
Slowness E > nether wart > sugar or magma cream > fermented spider eye > redstone
Health > nether wart > glistering melon
Health II > nether wart > glistering melon > glowstone
Harming > nether wart > glistering melon or spider eye > fermented spider eye
Harming II > nether wart > glistering melon or spider eye > fermented spider eye and glowstone
Poison > nether wart > spider eye
Poison E > nether wart > spider eye > redstone
Poison II > nether wart > spider eye > glowstone
Fire Resistance > nether wart > magma cream
Fire Resistance E > nether wart > magma cream > redstone

History

Potions brewing in Cauldrons (1.9 pre2).

Initially, the Cauldron was where potions were brewed. Code in Beta 1.9 pre2 revealed that Potions were brewed by adding water to the Cauldron followed by certain reagents. Correctly combined reagents would confer purely beneficial potion effects, and incorrect combinations added negative effects. The system was complicated, lacked a GUI, and formed many duplicate potions (i.e. two potions that were exactly the same could be made in several different ways), so Notch and Jeb came up with a new brewing method using a Brewing Stand. The Cauldron's role in brewing was relegated to being a slightly more efficient storage vessel for water. Brewing was greatly streamlined and simplified when a brewing GUI was added and most duplicate potions were removed (the total possible potions went down from 150 combinations to only 25 different potions in 31 combinations). However, this new system made some potion effects available in earlier 1.9 pre-releases inaccessible (e.g. Nausea, Blindness and Invisibility).

Throwable Splash Potions were introduced in Beta 1.9 Pre4 and brewed by placing gunpowder and any potion together in a brewing stand. This pre-release also introduced Glistering Melon as an alchemical reagent to replace the instant health effect conferred by the Ghast Tear, which then added the effect of regeneration instead. This version also converted certain reagents into base-secondary reagents (the Spider Eye, Glistering Melon and Blaze Powder made Mundane Potion when brewed into a water bottle in addition to their previous functions), bringing the potion total to 28 different potions in 35 combinations.

Potion type history

Based on information found in minecraft.jar/lang/en_US.lang, the current potion types from Minecraft 1.0.0 are listed below:

• Potion of Swiftness
• Potion of Slowness
• Potion of Strength
• Potion of Weakness
• Potion of Healing
• Potion of Harming
• Potion of Regeneration
• Potion of Fire Resistance
• Potion of Poison

Due to changes in the brewing system, the following potions are currently not accessible:

• Potion of Haste
• Potion of Dullness
• Potion of Leaping
• Potion of Nausea
• Potion of Resistance
• Potion of Water Breathing
• Potion of Invisibility
• Potion of Blindness
• Potion of Night Vision
• Potion of Hunger

Trivia

Splash potion brewed using gunpowder.

• Only 1 ingredient is needed to brew into up to 3 potions. These three potions do not necessarily have to be the same.
• Upgrading effect of potion that has no time parameter (i.e. Instant Health, Harming) with glowstone dust has no downsides.
• Upgrading a Fire Resistance Potion with redstone dust has no downsides.
• Although Jeb said that in the 1.9 pre-release 3 there were 161 possible different potion combinations with 2,653 in the future, in the actual third pre-release only 22 different potions could be made without the use of external programs. Of those, 19 potions had one of 8 different effects.
• The Mundane Potion made from redstone has a different metadata (64) than the mundane potion made from any other ingredient (8192). Unlike Mundane 64, Mundane 8192 can be made into a Splash Mundane Potion by adding gunpowder that is, like its base potion, without any effect.
• There are many Potions that were left behind from 1.9 pre-releases that fill up different metadatas that otherwise cannot be brewed or obtained without a SMP server command or inventory editor. These potions include but are not limited to: Bungling Potion, Buttering Potion, Debonair Potion, Refined Potion.
• Splash potions can be fired by Dispensers.
• Cauldrons can be entirely circumvented from the brewing process with no ill effects, as bottles can be filled by right-clicking on a water source block. This is an improvement from cauldrons, as one does not have to replenish the source block every three bottles, or indeed at all. This, however can not be done in the Nether, where cauldrons become essential.
• Some splash potions have the opposite effect on undead mobs such as zombies and skeletons.

Gallery

• Awkward potion creation.png

  Awkward potion being created from Nether Wart and Water Bottle

• Potion flow chart.png

  Flow Chart for Potion making.

• Potion Flow.png

  The same chart, but with images.

• Potion Build.png

  Basic Potion Combinations.

• Potion Recipes.png

  Potion recipes

• 

  Potion brewing chart showing all possible paths for non-splash potions

See also

• Crafting
• Enchanting
• Smelting

External links

• Minecraft Forum: All About Potions And Brewing - 1.9 Reference Guide
• Minecraft Potions - A Visual Guide