Bottling the Dragon Breath Capsicumel Mead. Is it sweet enough?

[@bostjerndahl1779]

I turned 40 last august. Quite proud that I have been sober for all of my life. I did not drink alcohol. And then I found your channel. Now I am instead quite proud of that I only drink my own home made alcohol :-). I have a simple mead (ok, but my stepfather drank most of it.). A mead with tea and raisins (much better than my first mead). Then I got a bit carried away. Now I have the following bubbling: A mead from apple juice and honey (Cyser?), a mead with strawberries and raisins and coffee, a wine from blackberries I almost threw away, a wine made with one cup of strong coffee and last years elderberries (from my freeezer) and homemade lemonade from elderberry flower. I almost threw away that lemonade too. The elderberry wine smells AMAZING. I can not wait to taste that one. in one bucket I also have one mead with mixed berries (Black currant, red currant, raspberries and strawberries). For every brew I have used simple dry bread yeast from KronJäst. So far: the first two are crystal clear. I hope my others will be crystal clear to, but I mostly hope they taste good :-). I really would like to make a capsicumel, but at the moment I am out of carboys and buckets :-). I suspect that I am responsible for at least half of your views because I have seen most of your vids several times. Please keep up your amazing work. Never stop interupt eachother. And pet ALLL of your cats from me. And say TRBOS from me also. Very kind regards from Sweden /Bo

[@CitySteadingBrews]

I am sorry and not sorry at the same time!

[@bostjerndahl1779]

@@CitySteadingBrews Nono. Don't be sorry. My choices. Both to drink and not to drink. I LOOVE flavours and alcohol carry flavours amazing. If you want to try this Swedish yeast I can send you some.

[@vandorn50]

Hello from Hollywood, CA! (Actually Burbank, but Hollywood sounds cooler). I found your channel yesterday, while looking to learn how to make mead (what, with Renfaire coming up and all). I love it already, and am sick-bed-binging it between binging episodes of The Mandalorian and my go-to: Voyager. Derica reminds me of my friend, Charis, and Brian reminds me of my friend Zach, with whom I play D&D on Saturday nights. Although it's not likely to happen, I am absolutely certain I would enjoy spending time with you both. Thanks for a very fun channel and letting us in to your home. I wish I had a bottle of mead.

[@kenw7098]

Watched Picard lastnight with a few glasses of homemade wine. Both where exactly what the night called for. Thanks for another entertaining video guys.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

I'm looking forwrd to it tonight!

[@LesliePeters]

Dead Head I’ve taken to waiting for the series to be available on disc, then buy them and binge the whole season :)

[@jasoneyre3424]

Love your videos, am learning a lot, have started first to meads :) thank you. I find your videos the best all round :) thank you both again :)

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Glad you like them!

[@billkorpela1976]

You guys are a HOOT! Thanks for your insite to making meads, appreicate your help!

[@keithmcauslan943]

You have inspired me to make the mead for a friend. I have been thinking about something similar to this but what was suggested to me was to use Tart fruits to blend and mellow the pepper heat. I was going to do a beer. but now it is a Dragon breath like mead. 2 gallons: 5 Pounds Mead 3/4 Gallons Black Cherry juice, 3/4 Gallons Cranberry juice, 1 Habanero 1 jalapeno. Make a Black tea also take a half of each pepper (after cleaning the seeds out) and add that to the tea. cool tea and add it all together. At secondary add 1 cup black Cherry and 1 cup Cranberry. The intent is to conceal the heat until the tail end of a swallow.

[@ChrisRedheart]

Another great video. Thank you for your time and effort in making them.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Thanks for the thanks!

[@MandalorV7]

I was going to ask a question about back sweetening but this video cleared it up. Thanks.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Glad to help! We have a video on backsweetening btw, kzbin.info/www/bejne/iYGVmJehrKuUpNE

[@DeathbyNoob15]

I know it was brief, but that mention of having mead during D&D made me love you guys so much more!

[@RobGraham048]

thats what I do and now all three of my adult children do as well. hehe

[@notsosassymarian]

You mentioned corking and waxing for gift giving - I’d love to see a video of that process. Thanks!

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Well.. to be honest, we only did it once. Can't say we'd be experts at it.

[@knglover1]

HOLY S! "Just a picture of my crotch" Made me laugh so hard at my desk at work that I snorted. Good thing I am the boss and used to people looking at me and shaking their heads. Great video guys!

[@joeschuster7872]

Hey CS Brews. One thing I just learned since starting to make beer. When I rack off sediment into a container I will be bottling from and it’s 100% clean (like you did here). I then remove the cup off the bottom of the outer syphon tube. That way it will syphon until 0 left in container. Obviously you guys did a great job of having hardly any left over. I remember awhile back when you removed that cup thinking it was a protective cap. Well maybe you were predicting future procedures because now could be that time to remove it again! Cheers.

[@StarsRevolt1]

Brian is the Alton Brown of mead, and I love it.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

I can live with that.

[@Fusion5669]

And we have another fantastic video in the books. Lots of good information and your right it's a fantastic color. Thanks for all that you do.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Thank you for watching and for your support!

[@Kprotv3823]

Little late to the party, but I have a question: The video cut while Derica (hope I'm spelling that right) was siphoning off from the carboy into the fermenter. My question is, did she siphon off the whole thing? or stop at the sediment? Only question I got. The rest is very clear and easy to follow.

[@Trozar]

Hey there! Thanks for all of these informative videos. I'm extremely appreciative. I am making my first mead and a lot of your videos have been my inspiration, so thank you very much!

[@Kannushi5]

On the note of car parts, the funnels I use in my brews are the ones they make for changing oil in cars. Yes, they're factory new. Yes, I sanitize. No, I've never used them for their actual intended purpose. I got those cause they were cheaper than the food ones I found at the same time and came as a set of 3. I can fill my 5 gal carboy easier with thicker ingredients (i.e. honey) with the wider funnel, and if I make smaller brews the smaller funnel of the set works wonders on those little batches as well.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

We have the same thing!

[@archietyler6759]

Once again another awesome video!!!Thanks again😄

[@theresasmith5422]

Sorry if this has been mentioned before but when I was watching this video something I’ve seen came to mind and I just wanted to share in case you hadn’t thought of it. I recently went to a friends house to learn how to make authentic Jamaican ginger beer and when she was racking it off all the grated ginger she used a tea infuser strainer in the beer and placed her racking cane into that. I thought it was a fantastic idea to get around the clogged racking cane issue.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Good idea!

[@karlkramer7687]

Just wanted to say I've been watching a lot of y'all's videos and they're great! Thanks for the help!

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Happy to help!

[@steveskouson9620]

Brian, (great shirt, I got the black version) I have a few of those bottles (100+) that I found at a discount store in the area. The last 40 I got, were 99 cents each, full of pink ginger lemonade, The ones full of Blood Orange Gingerbread lemonade were MUCH more tasty. But they cost $1.19 each. Oh, I've seen those bottles on Ebay, for up to $20 each. People seem to think 1895 is when the bottle was made. steve

[@Xargiyt]

Hey there! It would be really sweet if you could do a bigger brew as a video some time in the future. I'm currently looking for recipes that fit in a 15L bucket, which I think is 3 gallons, and I would love to see the process of getting it all working fine and dandy. Much love!

[@CitySteadingBrews]

You can always scale up any recipe to fit your style. We do one gallon so we don’t fill our house with fermenters and it’s much easier to do on camera! That said... the Dunkelweisen was 5 gallons.

[@AedanBlackheart]

@@CitySteadingBrews exactly 💯

[@thefamilyinthewoods]

I know this in not a mead but I just finished a Apply wine made from 1gal fresh squeezed apply cider and 2 cups of maple sugar then back sweetened with honey. And by just finished I mean I just finished drinking the last bottle and it was amazing. Ps. I really like the ongoing story of Picard vs the serial episodes of the past.

[@jasonl9084]

Funny. Just watched first 3 episodes of Picard. Great show.

[@jonathanwetenkamp3793]

Have you ever thought of using the chemical magnetic mixer when back-sweetening? You can control the speed at which the magnet bar spins which dictates the size of the vortex. I just don’t know if it would be too violent...

[@CitySteadingBrews]

For mixing? I don’t own one so I cannot say if it’s too violent but, for mixing, I feel the usual methods work well and if you haven’t degassed, no worries of oxidation either.

[@drsimmons74]

When stirring in the honey, you wanted to degas as well. Couldn’t you use the degassing wand to stir? Maybe even with the drill?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

That might introduce more oxygen than you want to.

[@mhter22]

Omg you need to make a compilation of you shaking the fermenters

[@klibstar8197]

Best shirt in any of the videos so far hands down “malt whiskey” hahaha

[@ScifiMike12]

1:13 I've been shopping at Home Depot and Lowes and they both have food grade buckets for less than $4. The lids are under $2 making it $6 for the total and you have enough space for a 1 gallon brew. Not to mention it's easier to remove the solids/stuff you added. Huge fan of that versus the "1 gallon wide mouth" glass jars" on Amazon that are barely 1 US Gallon.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Plastic will leech into your brew. The buckets at Lowes and HD are probably not food safe.

[@sarzootashoota351]

@@CitySteadingBrews the orange ones are not but they do have white food safe buckets on one of the aisles at most home depot's. I don't know about Lowe's.

[@jasonmyersOU812]

Damn! Derica hit that last glass like a G. Killed it stone cold dead. :D That made me laugh.

[@jamesj8965]

I got some of the same lemonade bottles and the seals we're built into the top. They leaked when bottle carbonating. I had to buy swing top assemblies but still worth the $ spent.

[@Mezox13]

The smell is strong with this mead

[@shawnhuot]

Picard, is a good show. Heard that they were going to have another series with Captain Philippa Georgiou. Also, Magicians is a good show too!! Love the vids

[@jeanjones4964]

Where do you get the buckets that you make your mead in? Do you drill a hole on the lid for the airlock?

[@jeanjones4964]

Some years ago I had a chocolate strawberry mead. Somebody brought it to a gathering and it tasted like a chocolate covered strawberry. Can you guys do something like that please or point me in the right direction to make myself please?

[@alyssamessing8261]

What would happen if, instead of backsweetening, all of the extra honey was put in at the beginning? Would it still have gone dry, or would it prevent the need for backsweetening?

[@edelta88]

Could you use something like a soda stream to reintroduce CO2 then let it off to force out O2 during the bottling phase?

[@DarkFaerie316]

I really enjoyed this vid and this is definitely one I would like to try. I have a question, if you don't mind. Would mango work in a mead or is there something about mango that would make it not a good idea?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

It would work just fine I would say. I just... well, I'm not a huge fan of mango.

[@PHMHarpGuitars]

I tried some habanero mango mead a few months ago and it was some of the best mead I ever tasted

[@DarkFaerie316]

@@CitySteadingBrews thank you for replying. I was curious about the mango as it's a favourite fruit of myself and a few friends. I guess it's worth a try, see how it goes :)

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Anytime!

[@DarkFaerie316]

@@PHMHarpGuitars that sounds so good. I might be getting ahead of myself though as I haven't made any mead (or anything else) before. Maybe start simple, then start experimenting lol

[@Cirkux]

Inspired by your videos I've made a lovely firewater mead with ghost peppers. It's nice and clear and a little dry as yet. How would you go about giving it a fiery orange colour?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

We don’t normally add things just for color honestly, and anything you add might alter the flavor too.

[@cecilmadden]

I think you have more than one scale. Could you do a brew talk about your scale selection. I would like to ba able to do both 1 gallon abd 6 gallon batches. Your suggestions are welcome.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Not much to say... we have two scales. One is more accurate, but only holds 17 lbs, the other holds 50 lbs but is less accurate.

[@marmoset9]

Have recently discovered the channel and really love what you do! I was wondering if you felt like the bottles you got are study enough for a bottle carbonation so if you wouldn’t even suggest carbonating in a 750 mL bottle.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

We have done it and yes our bottles are reused previously carbonated bottles.

[@silliepaulie640]

Always love the videos. Love Star Trek in any form. I don't know if you have talked about this before but how do you know how much honey to use for the initial Brew whether it's one gallon or more and why?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

We did a video on this actually.... kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJKvnX2Lgqd4hJI

[@laurenzparsons5315]

I wonder if the antibacterial properties of capsaicin would help prevent those acetobacters or if its too diluted. Should leave some out in the wild.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

If that were so it wouldn’t ferment either.

[@laurenzparsons5315]

@@CitySteadingBrews yeah i guess that's true. The names of all your products would be great in a great D&D bar. If you ever want to make an aweful beer try looking up our traditional beer called umqombothi

[@ethantugend9301]

Your videos are great! Thank you so much. So I was wondering, with a finished brew, once you open a bottle and take some from it you should finish it within the next couple days?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Yep, and I suggest refrigeration at that point too.

[@tmcfour111]

I know this is an older episode but, when you back sweetened isn't there the possibility of reactivating any yeast and making bottle bombs; because as you said before (or after in this case) "Yeast can't read"?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

If you go past the tolerance of the yeast, they can't ferment any further so you can sweeten.

[@frankmorgan1950]

that little bit left over will be disposed of "safely?"

[@cheekysaver]

I hate the sediment the back sweetening does... now I let it sit a couple months so it degases naturally and re clarifies. BUT... I am not making a mead a month on youtube... so I can let it sit as long as I like. You have a space crunch so you have different priorities.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Yep, I would normally have just let that sit again. But... we DO have videos to make, so... since that sediment layer is in the bottles, there's another potential video.

[@jadieramacdougal]

Speaking of Picard: Are any of you experiencing any stops/starts when streaming from their server, which gives the pause icon on our Firestick? This is NOT our internet connection problem, so has to come from the source. Drives me crazy.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Not thus far, no... but we did have a weird issue where the app wouldn't load on our fire stick.

[@jadieramacdougal]

TY for the info. Maybe I'll try casting it from my iPad to our TV....could be the Firestick

[@havoc9675]

If you like hot and sweet the you should try old smokey mango habanero whiskey

[@marlenemendez8998]

You don't pasturize these bottles before storing somewhere for later consumption or cold crashing?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Nah, only pasteurize if absolutely necessary. It's done fermenting, the gravity is stable even after I added more honey a few weeks ago. They are perfectly fine to store.

[@ryandisney7427]

Could you carbonate a wine by going about the normal method of adding enough fermentable sugars to carbonate it and add a non fermentable sugar like lactose to sweeten it? In essence to make a sweet carbonated wine?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Yes, you certainly can.

[@risingcalm7192]

Hello I am attempting to make this brew at my house. My question is there's a lot of foam that comes up to the surface and it's probably a good inch engine a 1/2 thick should I remove that should I remove that what I've been doing so far is daily I just push it down into it to keep everything wet.

[@eddavanleemputten9232]

I know you asked your question two months ago, fermentation will be done by now. Still, for when you make other meads: the foam is normal. Don’t worry. I just hope you had enough headspace and that the foam didn’t bubble out the airlock! Fermentation foams, and depending on what you’ve got in your must, you’ll get more or less foam on top. Part of it is a surface tension thing, influenced by sugar content, pectins, fruit solids, etc. I hope your brew fermented well, and that you back sweetened it to your liking. Give it a while to age, most meads only get better with age. Happy brewing!

[@BeardofHoneySoul]

I have the exact same turkey baster. Don’t know why I posted this. Keep up the vids!

[@CitySteadingBrews]

LOL. Solidarity!

[@sparky28806]

I know this is an old video but why don't you use co2 injection into the bottles to prevent oxidation it would be super cheap for the quantity needed

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Why not use that? Well, this channel is about keeping things simple. Not everyone has access to that kind of equipment, and personally we don't own it, so.... we don't use it. How likely is oxidation? Not very, in truth. In all our years of brewing, we've had only a few instances of it, and those were where we really abused the brew.

[@stephenknecht7189]

Maybe only use 1 jalapeno for a 1 gallon batch

[@knobbygnome4039]

Ok I may have missed someone already asking this but... knowing what you know now from this first run at dragons breath, would you change anything with the initial make? (i.e. 1 instead of 2 jalapenos, a little more honey at the start, etc.)

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Nope. Backsweetening gives more accuracy.

[@knobbygnome4039]

@@CitySteadingBrews excellent! Thank you!!

[@daveEmartin]

So, if you’re adding more honey why would this not restart a fermentation and carbonate? Did the yeast reach its tolerance? I’m a bit confused.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Okay... it fermented out. Then we backsweetened once the gravity was stable. We backsweetenedd again in this video. We didn't worry about fermentation restarting since we used a 14% yeast, and the ABV was over 14%. Since the first addition of honey didn't restart a fermentation, we can be reasonably sure the second addition won't either. Make sense?

[@daveEmartin]

If there are still residual sugars and the gravity hasn’t moved for a week or two, how do you not determine it hasn’t just stalled?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

@@daveEmartin because it's past the tolerance of the yeast... we used a 14% yeast, and the ABV is over 14%.

[@daveEmartin]

CS Brews Perfect, yes makes sense. That’s what I thought. Thanks for clarifying!

[@nicholaskarako5701]

Fafnir would be a good name for this dragons breath mead

[@brianrenko9848]

Why can’t we bottle into plastic? I have tons of plastic bottles but glass is hard to com by, and if my brew is done or if I’m storing it in my fridge where there isn’t much chance for a time bomb...why couldn’t I use plastic bottles? Ideas?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

You can, but plastic will leech chemicals into your brew. Not many alcoholic beverages are left in plastic for long for this reason.

[@Markus__B]

Do you think it could be useful to replace the air left in the bottle with an inert gas like argon? (like the stuff thats sold as wine preserver for opened bottles) to reduce the risk of oxidizing during storage?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

If you really want to. I've never had an issue, and I try to keep things really simple, lol.

[@Markus__B]

@@CitySteadingBrews Thanks for your Answer and i guess i will do it as i already have one of these things (a gift from someone who thought it was THE thing i needed). Your Videos are great and the reason to make my own mead instead of storebought. Thanks for that.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Hey, if you already have it.. go right ahead. No harm done.

[@cheekysaver]

Uggg... I had a autosiphon crack... why? Some nimrod (me) left the clamp on it to control how far it goes into the bottle. (I bottle and live by myself... it is a second set of hands) Well... over the course of about 6 months... it developed stress cracks. like a cheap dollar store plastic glass ran through a dishwasher. I recommend not leaving those clamps on. On the plus side... I have a spare racking cane? Hahaha (Me being all smart said no biggie... I will just grab my backup auto siphon.... yeah... it was one that came in used equipment... The new one I bought when I started brewing was thinner and fit in the one gallon carboys. So... off I went to amazon and bought one... a mini this time!... it came... the inner cane had scratches from the manufacture. I call that my set of 3 being done! :D I am getting another new siphon off of amazon... a mini again. I have too many small batches on the go to mess around.

[@jbafternoonpiper404]

I started my Dragon Breath Mead on 2/18/2020 and 3/20 it was 1.010 added about 1/2 lb honey and it went to 1.030. Checked it today 4/25 it was 1.030 so I bottled it. Tastes great but I think I should have used 2 jalapenos instead of just 1. I started a JAOM today. I looked through your videos to see if you made that but I didn't find any. Think you might try it sometime?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Jaom has been done a zillion times. I would rather make other things to be honest.

[@jbafternoonpiper404]

@@CitySteadingBrews I really liked the orange blossom mead I made last year. Just finished the last bottle. Don't have any orange blossom honey but I have honey and oranges so I'm giving it a try.

[@scooder33413]

Is there a mead or other beverage centered around brown sugar?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

No, but you can sub brown sugar for white sugar.

[@geekUGH2]

The only thing I like about botteling is to drink the rest that is too much or not enough for another bottle.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Yup. I don’t really enjoy racking and bottling.

[@geekUGH2]

@@CitySteadingBrews something that just popped into my mind ... How do you prefer to drink your mead? Cooled in the fridge? Room temp? Or in winter warmed up like a punsch or glühwein? On our local Christmas market you get mead punsch.. tastes great .. And at what temp do you age your mead? Is mead sensitive to light like beer?

[@gryph01]

I always call the partial bottle 'the traveler'

[@borttorbbq2556]

Cool

[@Nomortem]

Would you recommend using simple syrup instead of honey for back-sweetening? I haven't needed to (yet), but I'm afraid that using honey might throw the flavor out of balance? Great video, I've been looking forward to this one! Cheers!

[@CitySteadingBrews]

If you made mead... ehh can go either way. Normally I sweeten mead with honey and wine with sugar.

[@mattgessner9]

You can test it by pouring two small glasses of your mead. Add a small amount of honey in one glass. And your syrup to the other glass and taste the difference. Testing with small amounts is a good way to fiddle with and try adding different things, without wasting too much mead.

[@bighara]

Watch the Expanse. It's the best sci-fi out there.

[@CitySteadingBrews]

We will check it out!

[@Jakenatorr]

I'm making a wine with black grapes. Its light purple right now, is there any way to make it darker? Or thicker?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Well... not much to go on here. Batch size? How much grapes did you use? Frozen? Crushed? Inquiring minds need to know!

[@Jakenatorr]

Derp lol. 1 gallon, 1lb of pulped fresh grapes, 2lbs of sugar

[@CitySteadingBrews]

@@Jakenatorr okay, first... the obvious. More grapes. In my research of making wines... using fresh grapes... you need 20 POUNDS of grapes for 1 gallon of wine! Now.. you've added sugar so you have the ABV potential already, but you want more color, so... yeah, more fruit. As for thicker? Do you mean literally thicker? Wine and mead aren't really thick....

[@Jakenatorr]

Ok more grapes. Thank you. I meant thicker color. I derp most times I try words

[@CitySteadingBrews]

@@Jakenatorr hehe, all good.

[@DracosDiabolis]

As much as im enjoying Picard. im just waiting for the Mandalorian season 2. But in the meantime, lets learn how to make mead! and other brews!

[@CitySteadingBrews]

Oh yes, the Mandalorian. Love that show.

[@moniquechampagne6343]

I need auto siphon sizing advice can you guys help me?

[@CitySteadingBrews]

There's two sizes. Big and lilttle. big is for 3 and 5 gallon fermenters, small is for 1. Did that help or... did you have a different question?

[@moniquechampagne6343]

@@CitySteadingBrews yes here in Canada we have access to mini, medium and large. Also 5/16, 3/8 and 1/2 for the tubing I guess. I see kits with 5/16 and 1/2 tubing but none with 3/8. I hear that 3/8 is a nice size PLUS it seems that the bottle fillers all use 3/8 sooo because I don't know how it's assembled, I don't know if I can just but a cane and buy the tubing desperately and how does a bottling wand fit if you have either 5/16 or 1/2 inch tubing? Too many questions I'm afraid

[@shaxpere2000]

we wanna see the accident video :-)

[@probablynotdad6553]

Pretty much all old sci-fi has been killed for me due to new writers who dont care at all about pre-established lore or world building and just want to flog me over the head with their opinions during my rooty tooty point and laser shooty escapism time.

[@NaihanchinKempo]

if you hafn't seen it, why not get Disney plus and watch The mandalotian

[@CitySteadingBrews]

We did... and have... we are waiting for the new season.

[@eddavanleemputten9232]

The goal is not to wear it... LOL! (Algorithm comment, BTW.)

[@AedanBlackheart]

So maybe 1 jalapeño instead of 2 so it'll be sweeter could've been better?

[@amedaius8492]

I think Fresno peppers might make a wonderful capsicumel. They have a sort of cherry-like taste to them in addition to plenty of heat, I regularly add them to cucumber salads and such. They can be hard to find though, they sometimes get sold while green as jalapenos. Jalapenos on the other hand have a sort of grass taste to me, which I wouldn't stick into a wine/mead, but that's just me.

[@RobGraham048]

well there is Altered Carbon, Shadow Bone, and Sweet Tooth. as good shows to watch.

[@RobGraham048]

Next time, clean all the pepper seeds out before use. Use the flesh of the pepper only. The seeds are where the majority of the heat is held.