Witches Brew
Every Minecraft alchemist knows the ritual: gather blaze rods, grind them into powder, and feed a brewing stand one batch at a time. It works, but it is slow, fuel-hungry, and honestly a little boring after the hundredth potion. Witches Brew flips that routine on its head by turning the humble cauldron into a fully functional brewing station. If you have ever wished your witch hut felt more like an actual witch's kitchen, this add-on was made for you.
What Witches Brew Adds to the Game
At its core, Witches Brew introduces an alternative brewing method built around the cauldron. Instead of standing at a brewing stand, you fill a cauldron with water and toss in your ingredients by hand. The real selling point is the fuel source: a Soul Campfire placed directly underneath the cauldron powers the whole process. That means no blaze powder required, which saves you a trip to the Nether and stretches every blaze rod you already own much further.
The mod also adds an empty version of the splash and lingering potion bottles. These blank bottles let you decide at the moment of filling whether you want a standard drinkable potion, a splash potion, or a lingering potion, giving you far more flexibility than the vanilla system offers.
Supported Versions and Loader
Witches Brew is a Forge mod, so you will need a Forge installation matching your game version to run it. It was built with older Minecraft releases in mind, so players on legacy versions who still enjoy modded survival will feel right at home. As always, check that your Forge build lines up with your Minecraft version before you install anything, because a mismatch is the number one cause of a crash on startup.
How to Brew Potions in a Cauldron
The process is refreshingly hands-on once you understand the flow. Here is the full routine:
- Place a cauldron and put a Soul Campfire directly beneath it.
- Fill the cauldron with water, either by using water bottles or by dumping in a full water bucket.
- Right-click the cauldron with each ingredient in hand to add it to the brew.
- Keep adding ingredients until the cauldron holds the potion you want.
- Right-click with an empty normal, splash, or lingering bottle to fill it with your finished potion.
One important note: the mod currently supports vanilla potion recipes only. The way Forge handles brewing recipes makes custom recipes difficult to integrate cleanly, so do not expect modded potions to work in the cauldron just yet.
Why the Soul Campfire Matters
Fuel is where this add-on truly shines. A Soul Campfire burns indefinitely without consuming anything, so once it is placed you never need to refuel. Compare that to a brewing stand, which devours blaze powder with every single batch. For players who brew in bulk, the savings add up fast.
How to Install Witches Brew
Getting started is straightforward. First, confirm you are running a Forge profile for a compatible Minecraft version. Next, download Witches Brew for Minecraft from a trusted source and drop the jar file into your mods folder. Launch the game through the Forge profile, and the new cauldron mechanics will be active in your world.
If you would rather skip the manual file shuffling, the foxygame.net launcher handles the entire setup for you. It lists Witches Brew alongside a curated catalog of add-ons, so you can install it with a single click and let the launcher keep it updated automatically whenever a new build appears.
Before brewing, gather a cauldron, a Soul Campfire, water, and your usual ingredients such as nether wart and blaze powder for the base potion. From there, experimentation is half the fun.
Final Thoughts
Witches Brew is a small mod with a big quality-of-life payoff. It rewards players who enjoy the alchemy side of Minecraft with a cheaper, more tactile brewing loop, and the blank splash and lingering bottles add a layer of control that vanilla never offered. If you are tired of farming blaze powder just to keep your potion supply stocked, give this add-on a try. Build the cauldron, light the Soul Campfire, and let the brewing begin.