Cayenne powder floating in secondary

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inmytree

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I put 1/2 tbsp cayenne powder in a secondary carboy yesterday and racked 5 gallons of stout onto it. Today I see that there is some of the cayenne powder floating on top of the stout in the secondary. Has anyone used cayenne in secondary before to know if the powder will eventually dissolve into the beer after a number of days? My concern is if there is still cayenne powder floating on top at the time of bottling then some of the concentrated powder may end up in the bottles, which I assume would not taste good and would be too spicy. Otherwise, perhaps I would just need to skim off the powder floating on top before bottling. Does anyone have experience using cayenne powder and know the answer to this?
 
Do you mean red pepper? Or flaked cayenne? Either one won't really dissolve ime. They're the dried skin of the cayenne pepper pod.
 
It is red pepper cayenne powder. If it doesn't dissolve, then won't it end up in the bottle, and end up floating in your glass after you pour it from the bottle?
 
Probably. Next time, you can try using chunk pepper in a grain bag and sink that in your primary with a sanitized stone in it. I wouldn't worry too much though. If you still have the floaties by bottling day, you can always try lining your bottling bucket with a sanitized BIAB filter bag. A cheap option are paint strainer bags they sell in hardware stores. Just boil it for a few minutes to sanitize it, use it to line the interior of your bottling bucket and use some metal binder clips around the upper edge of the bucket to hold the bag open and in place. As the beer drains out into your bottles, the bag will strain out the pepper and any remaining trub.
 
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