The fastest way to understand Minecraft brewing is to remember one pattern: put water bottles in a Brewing Stand, add Nether Wart to create Awkward Potions, then add the ingredient that determines the effect. Redstone Dust, Glowstone Dust, Gunpowder, Dragon’s Breath, and Fermented Spider Eye alter duration, potency, or delivery.
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This guide lists every recipe covered by the current recipe set, explains what each effect does, shows the exact brewing order for drinkable, splash, and lingering versions, and identifies the four effects added in Java Edition 1.21. Durations and some availability rules differ between Java and Bedrock, so treat any duration shown in your game as edition- and version-specific.
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A Brewing Stand is the workstation for combining bottles and ingredients. The survival-brewing loop has three stages:
- Start with water bottles. Place your filled bottles in the Brewing Stand.
- Add Nether Wart. This converts the water bottles into Awkward Potions, the base for nearly every effect potion.
- Add one effect ingredient. The ingredient determines whether the result heals, protects, damages, speeds up, or otherwise changes an entity.
Weakness is the important exception: it is brewed from a Water Bottle and Fermented Spider Eye rather than from an Awkward Potion. Alternate recipes such as Invisibility, Slowness, and Harming use an existing effect potion plus Fermented Spider Eye.
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Brewing is performed in batches using the bottle slots in the stand. Keep the base potion and the final effect in mind before adding a modifier, because duration and potency upgrades normally follow separate branches.
Every potion recipe and effect
The table uses the simplest valid base for each result. “Awkward” means an Awkward Potion made with Water Bottle plus Nether Wart.
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|---|---|---|---|
| Awkward Potion | Water Bottle | Nether Wart | Base for most effect potions |
| Healing | Awkward Potion | Glistering Melon Slice | Restores health instantly |
| Fire Resistance | Awkward Potion | Magma Cream | Protects against fire and lava damage |
| Regeneration | Awkward Potion | Ghast Tear | Restores health over time |
| Strength | Awkward Potion | Blaze Powder | Increases melee damage |
| Swiftness | Awkward Potion | Sugar | Increases movement speed |
| Leaping | Awkward Potion | Rabbit’s Foot | Increases jump height |
| Water Breathing | Awkward Potion | Pufferfish | Lets the player breathe underwater |
| Night Vision | Awkward Potion | Golden Carrot | Improves visibility in darkness |
| Poison | Awkward Potion | Spider Eye | Deals periodic damage, normally stopping when the target reaches one health |
| Slow Falling | Awkward Potion | Phantom Membrane | Slows falling and prevents fall damage |
| Turtle Master | Awkward Potion | Turtle Shell | Provides strong resistance with severe slowness |
| Weakness | Water Bottle | Fermented Spider Eye | Reduces melee damage; useful when curing a zombie villager |
| Invisibility | Night Vision | Fermented Spider Eye | Makes the player visually invisible; worn armor and held items can still reveal them |
| Slowness | Swiftness or Leaping | Fermented Spider Eye | Slows movement |
| Harming | Healing or Poison | Fermented Spider Eye | Deals instant damage |
| Oozing (1.21+) | Awkward Potion | Slime Block | Under the effect’s conditions, spawns slimes when an affected mob dies |
| Infestation (1.21+) | Awkward Potion | Stone Block | Gives affected entities a chance to spawn silverfish when hurt |
| Weaving (1.21+) | Awkward Potion | Cobweb | Causes cobweb-related area behavior on affected entities |
| Wind Charged (1.21+) | Awkward Potion | Breeze Rod | Creates a wind-burst behavior when the affected entity dies |
The four effects marked 1.21+ were introduced in Java Edition 1.21. The official 1.21 release information also states that Oozing, Infestation, Weaving, and Wind Charged can be used with splash potions, lingering potions, and tipped arrows.
Base potions: water, Awkward, and the Weakness exception
Awkward Potion
Put Nether Wart into Water Bottles in the Brewing Stand. The result is an Awkward Potion, which is the foundation for Healing, Fire Resistance, Regeneration, Strength, Swiftness, Leaping, Water Breathing, Night Vision, Poison, Slow Falling, Turtle Master, and the four 1.21 effects.
Weakness
Use a Water Bottle directly with Fermented Spider Eye. This route bypasses Nether Wart. Weakness reduces melee damage and has a particularly important utility use: it is part of the process for curing a zombie villager.
Potions made by adding Fermented Spider Eye
Fermented Spider Eye is the corruption ingredient. It changes compatible effects instead of starting the usual Awkward-Potion route.
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- Night Vision → Invisibility: the player becomes visually invisible, but armor and held items remain visible.
- Swiftness or Leaping → Slowness: either of those movement-oriented potions can be corrupted into Slowness.
- Healing or Poison → Harming: either source produces an instant-damage potion.
Because the base potion matters, adding Fermented Spider Eye to an unrelated effect will not produce one of these four results.
Duration, potency, and delivery modifiers
| Modifier | Apply it to | What it changes |
|---|---|---|
| Redstone Dust | A potion that supports extension | Extends the effect duration |
| Glowstone Dust | A potion with a stronger tier | Increases potency |
| Gunpowder | A drinkable potion | Converts it into a Splash Potion |
| Dragon’s Breath | A Splash Potion | Converts it into a Lingering Potion |
Redstone and Glowstone are not interchangeable. Redstone is the choice when you need an effect to last longer; Glowstone is the choice when the potion has a stronger tier and you need that higher intensity. These are normally separate upgrade branches, so decide whether duration or potency is more valuable before modifying a bottle.
Drinkable potions
A normal potion is consumed by the player and applies its effect to the drinker. This is usually the most precise option when you are preparing for a trip, a fight, or a controlled task and do not want to affect nearby entities.
Splash Potions
Add Gunpowder to a drinkable potion. The result can be thrown, making it useful when the target is another player, a mob, or a group rather than the brewer. Splash versions are also the practical form when drinking would be impossible during combat.
Lingering Potions
Add Dragon’s Breath to a Splash Potion. A Lingering Potion creates an area effect that remains after impact, allowing entities that enter the area to be affected. The conversion order matters: Dragon’s Breath is added after Gunpowder has already made the potion splashable.
Tipped arrows
Tipped arrows can carry potion effects. In Java Edition 1.21, the official release information specifically includes Oozing, Infestation, Weaving, and Wind Charged among the effects usable by tipped arrows as well as splash and lingering potions.
Which potions to brew first
If you are building a first practical stockpile, choose by the activity you are about to do rather than trying to make every recipe immediately.
For the Nether, lava, and fire-heavy areas
- Fire Resistance: the priority defensive potion for lava and fire hazards.
- Strength: improves melee damage when hostile mobs are the main threat.
- Healing: gives immediate health recovery when you cannot wait for regeneration.
For long-distance travel and difficult terrain
- Swiftness: increases movement speed and reduces the time spent crossing exposed ground.
- Slow Falling: slows descent and prevents fall damage, making it valuable around cliffs and vertical builds.
- Leaping: increases jump height where vertical movement is more useful than speed.
For oceans, caves, and low-light exploration
- Water Breathing: lets the player breathe underwater.
- Night Vision: improves visibility in darkness.
- Fire Resistance: remains useful in lava-filled caves and any area where a single mistake can be fatal.
For controlled combat or mob work
- Regeneration: restores health over time during a sustained encounter.
- Poison: deals periodic damage and normally cannot reduce a target below one health by itself.
- Harming: deals instant damage and is made by corrupting Healing or Poison.
- Weakness: reduces melee damage and supports zombie-villager curing.
- Turtle Master: combines strong resistance with severe slowness, so it is a defensive emergency choice rather than a travel potion.
Ingredient choice by purpose
The effect ingredient is the decision point in the main brewing chain. The following grouping helps you plan shopping and storage without memorizing the entire table.
| Purpose | Ingredients to keep ready | Resulting effects |
|---|---|---|
| Immediate or gradual healing | Glistering Melon Slice, Ghast Tear | Healing, Regeneration |
| Damage and combat power | Blaze Powder, Spider Eye, Fermented Spider Eye | Strength, Poison, Harming, Weakness |
| Movement and traversal | Sugar, Rabbit’s Foot, Phantom Membrane | Swiftness, Leaping, Slow Falling |
| Environmental protection | Magma Cream, Pufferfish, Golden Carrot | Fire Resistance, Water Breathing, Night Vision |
| Heavy defense | Turtle Shell | Turtle Master |
| 1.21 entity behaviors | Slime Block, Stone Block, Cobweb, Breeze Rod | Oozing, Infestation, Weaving, Wind Charged |
This table describes the ingredient-to-effect relationship; it does not imply that all ingredients are equally easy to obtain in every world or edition.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Edition and version limits you should label
Do not copy a duration from one edition into the other without checking the version. Exact durations, potency details, and some obtainability rules vary between Java and Bedrock. A reliable guide or in-game result should therefore identify the edition and version beside any duration or availability claim.
Java Edition 1.21 is the relevant version for the four new effects in this guide. Newer Java releases describe brewing recipes as data-driven, which allows data packs to add or modify recipes. A world using a data pack may therefore produce results that differ from the default recipe set.
Common brewing mistakes and fixes
The bottle stays a Water Bottle
Check that Nether Wart was the ingredient used for the main base route. Water Bottles become Awkward Potions only after the Nether Wart step.
The effect is not the one you expected
Verify both the base and the ingredient. For example, Golden Carrot must be added to an Awkward Potion for Night Vision, while Fermented Spider Eye must be added to Night Vision to make Invisibility.
You brewed Weakness from the wrong base
Weakness uses Water Bottle plus Fermented Spider Eye. Starting with an Awkward Potion sends you into the normal effect-potion branch instead.
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You cannot make the potion last longer and stronger
Redstone Dust and Glowstone Dust normally represent separate upgrade branches. Choose the outcome you need before applying the modifier rather than assuming both upgrades can be applied to the same finished potion.
The thrown potion does not create an area effect
Gunpowder creates a Splash Potion, but an area that lingers requires the additional Dragon’s Breath step. Convert the drinkable potion with Gunpowder first, then convert that Splash Potion with Dragon’s Breath.
An invisible player is still easy to see
Invisibility hides the player visually, but worn armor and held items can still reveal their presence. Remove or account for those visible items when stealth matters.
A compact brewing workflow
- Gather clean Water Bottles and place them in the Brewing Stand.
- Add Nether Wart unless you are specifically making Weakness.
- Choose the effect ingredient from the recipe table and brew the base effect.
- If you need a corrupted effect, use the listed source potion with Fermented Spider Eye.
- Choose Redstone Dust for a longer supported duration or Glowstone Dust for a stronger supported tier.
- Add Gunpowder if the potion must be thrown.
- Add Dragon’s Breath to that Splash Potion if the effect must linger in an area.
- For Java 1.21 effects, remember that Oozing, Infestation, Weaving, and Wind Charged can also be delivered through splash potions, lingering potions, and tipped arrows.
Once you know whether the job is healing, protection, movement, visibility, combat, or an entity-triggered 1.21 behavior, the recipe is simply the matching base and ingredient followed by the delivery or modifier step you actually need.
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