Minecraft/How To Brew

This guide assumes that you have made a Nether portal.

To start brewing, you first need a brewing stand.

Making the stuff[edit | edit source]

Enter the Nether, assuming you haven't already. You might first want to see the preparations guide.
Find a Nether fortress. It should be a large building in a shade of dark red. But remember to leave a trail of torches to help you get back to your portal.
- Don't attack the piglins, unless you didn't take gold armour and they are attacking you.
Once found, try to enter it. Chances are, it is isolated from land and surrounded by an ocean of lava. You may need to build a bridge to get to it. Just be mindful of ghasts. You know one spotted you if you hear a high-pitched, angry-sounding squeal.
Explore until you find a staircase with a red plant growing at the bottom. This is Nether wart, an ingredient necessary in making most potions. Consider collecting the soul sand it is growing on as well.
Now that was the easy part. The hard part is killing blazes (orange floating fire monsters found in Nether fortresses), and collecting their rods.
Try to get around 5. If you find a spawner, use it to farm them. Later on, you can create a room around the spawner to kill the blazes from behind a wall. But for now, get out the moment you start feeling overwhelmed.
Exit the Nether. Now the hard part is over. The rest is just crafting, mostly.
Collect 3 glass blocks. You can get glass by smelting sand.
Craft the glass into bottles.
Craft a brewing stand.

Fill glass bottles with water. This can be done by holding one and interacting with water.
Place your brewing stand.
Craft blaze powder with your remaining blaze rods. Place them in the top left slot in the brewing stand. This is your fuel.
Place water bottles on the bottom three slots of the brewing stand.
Place one Nether wart in the top slot.
As you wait, find somewhere to place soul sand, and plant your Nether wart on it. They will grow and can be harvested after a while.
After the brewing stand is finished, place sugar, magma cream or blaze powder at the top slot again. This will create a potion of speed, fire resistance, or strength, respectively.
To see what else you can make, see the brewing reference.