Can you make chillis hotter by drying them?

My chillis are a dwarf variety, but I didn't expect such dwarf fruits! There are many little red buttons on the plant, only about 1cm long. But there are 'normal' looking ones too that are still green and should ripen soon. I think I'll have to use about 2 dozen of the little ones at a time  

As for chilli oil, it's dead easy. Dry them out, slit them a bit to let the oil get right through them, and stick a whole load in a bottle of olive oil (don't be shy about packing a good few in there). Every so often invert the bottle a few times to mix things up and start using it after a few months. Do two bottles and 'forget' about one of them. It will taste amazing! Also good to put a little bit in salad dressings to give some background nip.

I used some seeds from Lardmans Seed parcel labeled Whippets Tail.  The plant is now about 5' high and covered in 12" long peppers.

Has anyone grown these, are they hot?

Probably a bit late now, but for next time, you can make a chilli plant produce hotter chillis by stressing it.  Keep it on the dry side, let it get a bit droopy, will make the chillis hotter.

 

OK. But at what stage within the growing process would you do this? All the time? Flowering? First signs of fruit? Or when fruit are a red colour? Thanks.

Sorry, this might not be helpful, but I have to.

A mate came along to the greenhouse and I complained about the chillis being rubbish as I said here. So he whipped off the plant a slightly larger one than I took and bit into it like it was a carrot.

And then he exploded.