Naga Brain
Also known as Red Naga Brain · NagaBrain · Naga Brains Red · Nagabrain
A US-bred Capsicum chinense superhot with gnarly, brain-wrinkled pods and estimated heat around one million Scoville units. An accidental 7 Pot Brain Strain × Dorset Naga cross, named and stabilized by Louisiana grower Gary Montcalm.
Growing
~110 days to maturity
Fruit size
5–8 cm
Flavor & Use
Fruity and floral up front, with tangy and slightly earthy notes that show briefly before a delayed, lingering superhot burn. Flesh is thin-walled and chewy and dries well.
Culinary
About
Naga Brain is a fattened, short naga- or bhut-type chinense whose heavily wrinkled, warty skin gives the fruit its name. Pods ripen from green to red, run about 5–8 cm long, and have thin, chewy walls packed with placenta. Heat is estimated at 800,000–1,000,000 SHU — never formally HPLC-tested, but in the same class as its 7 Pot and Naga parents. Flavor is fruity and floral with a tangy, slightly earthy edge that appears briefly before a long, brutal burn. Plants are productive, typically 70–120 cm tall, and need a long warm season.
Backstory
In 2011 Florida grower Jamie Hill sent 7 Pot seeds to Gary Montcalm in Caddo Parish, Louisiana. One 2012 plant set bumpy, naga-shaped pods; Hill traced it to an accidental 7 Pot Brain Strain × Dorset Naga cross in his garden. Montcalm named the hybrid NagaBrain and began stabilizing it in 2013, when yellow and chocolate phenotypes also appeared. The red form is the cultivar sold as Naga Brain.
Appearance
Growing
Heritage
Naga Brain is a stabilized line from 7 Pot Brain Strain and Dorset Naga.
Gary Montcalm · 2012
Parents
Peppers bred from Naga Brain
Montcalm’s 2016 grow-log and Hill’s 2013 posts both name an accidental 7 Pot Brain Strain × Dorset Naga from Hill’s Florida garden. Montcalm named the red F1 NagaBrain in 2012 and selected that line in Louisiana; catalogs still sell the same pairing.