Not going to lie, I've never done potions in Minecraft survival until today. The way it works is kind of genius actually, and it's super fun to collect the ingredients for the potion you're trying to get!
was just thinking about this recently - i’ve got no clue how brewing stands work, despite playing minecraft for like 10 years
I was the exact same way - and apparently the reason why is just that it's complicated. You've gotta fuel the stand with blaze powder, put three bottles of water in, and then use nether wart as a base ingredient, and then look up the specific ingredients to the potion you're making.