Disclaimer; I do not own Minecraft, nor do I attempt to profit by publishing this work of fanfiction.
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It has recently come to my attention that there is a severe lack of written information on the topic of alchemy and the process of brewing potions. Of course, brewmasters themselves know the tricks of the trade, but to the budding alchemist, they must experiment with no semblance of a clue on how to make a simple potion of healing.
Experimenting, though as useful and valuable as it is however, is not a good idea for someone who does not know the first thing about potions. I know this myself from the singed eyebrows and burnt nasal passages I received during my own apprenticeship. So, upon coming up fruitless on my quest for alchemic notes, I decided to take it upon myself to write this short little book you are holding in your hands right now, and explain the basics of brewing and alchemy.
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First of all, you will need a brewing stand, a source of water, and some bottles. The bottles are easy enough to manage, as glass can be carefully blown into small bottles, and if you're located around any source of water — fresh preferable to salt — it is simple to fill your bottles to the desired height, which is about two to three inches from the crest of the nozzle. Of course, finding space in your home or brewing room for a cauldron is a good idea as well, as the source of water is easily accessed.
As for a brewing stand, you can make it at home with a blaze rod, tubes, and some cobble, but it's infinitely easier and safer to just purchase a premade one.
After your area is set up, you may begin brewing! Below, there is a simple list of ingredients and effects, and following that is a more detailed description, as well as the steps to come about these items.
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Nether Wart - must be brewed inside a soon-to-be potion before anything else may be added
Gunpowder - makes the potion able to be thrown
Redstone - makes the effects last longer
Glowstone - makes the effects more potent
Blaze Powder - strength
Ghast Tear - regeneration
Spider eye - potent poison
Fermented Spider Eye - weakness or reverses effects of pre-existing potions
Magma Cream - fire resistance
Sugar - swiftness/speed
Golden Carrot - night vision
Glistering Melon - instant health
Pufferfish - water breathing
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-Nether Wart-
As the primary ingredient for any potion, Nether Wart is positively essential to brew. The nether-grown fungus has special properties that activate the otherwise neutral effects within the brewing ingredients, and as such should be gathered in large quantities. It grows in the soft, spongy substance called soul sand, and it's camouflaged by its distinct red coloring.
-Gunpowder-
Gunpowder is a tricky thing to come by, as you must kill a ghast or a creeper to get it. Both of these creatures disintegrate after their death — like skeletons — except that the explosive creatures leave behind gunpowder instead of bone dust. Lining the inside of the bottle with a thin layer of gunpowder before anything else will make the glass easier to break, and it will shatter on impact of whatever it is you're trying to hit.
-Redstone-
Sprinkling a bit of redstone inside a potion will make the effects last for nearly twice the original amount of time, so this is a wonderful blessing for any well-traveled adventurer. Redstone, used also in circuits as methods of running electricity, can be found as ore deep inside the earth, near the still pools of lava and often found near diamond, coal, and lapis.
-Glowstone-
Occasionally left behind by blaze, glowstone is most easily found growing like crystals on the essential "ceiling" of the Nether. Like glass, it is easily broken, and may later even be converted back into a block. Aptly named, the golden rock sets off a glowing ray of pulsing light, and the dust can be used to enhance the effects of a potion, thus making the drink in question stronger.
-Blaze Powder-
Called "blaze rods," these fiery wands are dropped by the most playful of mobs; the blaze. These polylimbed creatures float through the air with ease and taunt those bound to the earth, all the while hurling fireballs and giggling. A blaze rod is what makes them able to create fire, and is essentially the heart. Near useless themselves, the rods only serve as the main ingredient of a brewing stand, as the constantly and consistently produced heat of the rods serves as a perfect environment for brewing. However, crushing them up will produce a warm, flame-colored dust that can be used either with an ender pearl to create an Eye of Ender (which in turn can be used to open a portal to the End), or be mixed inside a potion to create an elixir of strength.
-Ghast Tears-
When a ghast dies, it sheds a single tear which then solidifies and crystallizes, making a tear-shaped, mushroom-sized crystal reminiscent of quartz. Dropping the tear inside a potion will melt the deceptively sturdy stone nearly instantaneously, and will create a potion of resistance.
-Spider Eye-
Killing a spider is simple enough for any experienced adventurer, but to a budding alchemist who has never held a sword in his life, the task can seem quite daunting. As both an accomplished adventurer and an alchemist, I can assure you; with the right approach and proper tactic, dispatching one of the large arachnids becomes as simple as
-Fermented Spider Eye-
To ferment a spider eye, you must first gather some fresh mushrooms. Just the regular grey ones; the spotted, red variety have different properties and do not work as well as the grey-brown ones. You might check with your local alchemy shop before running off to a swamp, as they are usually in stock. If they aren't, however, then swamps are hotspots for the fungi, and a quick scan of the shaded trunks of the low-hanging trees will almost certainly turn up the sandy-grey tops.
When you return to your place of potion brewing, crush up the tops and stir them in with a small bowl of sugar. The paste made by mixing the two substances is high in preservatives, and the rotting mushrooms will secrete a chemical that causes the fermentation process. Make sure you have enough in the bowl or container to fully surround any and all spider eyes inside; since you can ferment more than one at a time.
Adding this to a bottle of water — or a soon-to-be potion infused with netherwart; an Awkward potion — will result in a potion of Weakness, and adding it to an existing potion will reverse the effects. For example, a potion of Healing will become a potion of Harming, and a potion of Night Vision will become a potion of Invisibility.
-Magma Cream-
Much like the slimes found in the overworld, magma cubes are slippery, sloppy chunks of goo that hop around and make sucking noises as their porous bodies stick to every surface. Magma cubes, however, are hot to the touch, and instead of leaving slime residue behind, they leave magma cream.
-Sugar-
Sugar is easy enough to come by, as most bakeries have an ample supply, but if you prefer to take a more traditional approach to gathering the sweet substance, traveling to desert oasis and scavenging near freshwater rivers are both very effective methods of gathering the raw ingredient; sugar cane. Like bamboo, it grows in tall, jointed stalks that have a thick outer shell. The inside is crystallized, and crushing it into small chunks is what makes sugar. Of course, refined sugar is easier and cleaner, but sugar taken directly from the stalk is much more potent and you don't need to use quite as much.
An added bonus is that whatever is left, you can use in baking a cake!
-Golden Carrot-
Carrots are nearly almost grown by farmers, so going to your local market is the easiest method of gathering the root. Golden nuggets can be chipped from gold ingots, but if you feel particularly dangerous, you can go to the Nether and slay some zombie pigmen. The undead creatures carry golden swords, and when they are killed, their bodies disintegrate and the sword falls apart, usually into a few salvageable chunks.
-Glistering Melon
As with the golden carrot, a melon is normally found in a market or a farm, and the same goes for the gold nuggets in the respect that they are crafted nearly the same way.
-Pufferfish-
Catching this illusive fish is a triumph in it of itself, and once you do, the rewards are great. You can not only sit down to a nice meal, but you can use the spines covering the circumference of the aquatic mammal for potion brewing, as the poison spikes are not advisable for consumption.