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Just basic chemistry, nothing to do with being a Yankee (g!). Capsaicin and related capsaicinoids (oleoresin capsicum, in the case of habanero) are soluble only in fat, not in water or alcohol.

Check your facts again Bubba.

According to my old trusty Merck Index (10th ed. pg 243-244), capsaicin is "freely soluble in alcohol, ether, benzene, chloroform;".

This deserves repeating: Typical yankee.

Sorry again, Freebird. We were discussing what humans could do to reverse the 'heat' effects of capsaicin. While drinking methanol (which is what the Merck index means by alcohol) will undoubtedly dissolve any capsaicin that has not migrated transdermally, such action will also produce rather severe side effects, even to the point of requiring a trip to the ER. Bad idea.

However, unfortunately, capsaicin is only minimally soluble in alcohols heavier than methanol, e.g. ethanol, hence beer or wine. Any relief obtained from drinking beer will have occurred because of a simple 'washing-away' effect. (As an aside, pls note in general that solubility of anything in beer or wine will be but a tiny fraction of the solubility of the same substance in pure ethanol, due to 1) the small actual proportion of ethanol present and 2) the dilution of solubility effects from the presence of contaminants, typically grain or fruit flavinoids.) It didn't occur to me that you might accidentally confuse the two (who drinks methanol, after all?), else I would have written ''insoluble in ethyl alcohol''.

Here's a link to the formal chemical specification of capsaicin, as produced by a primary manufacturer.

http://www.alkalimetals.com/specs/pure_capsaicin_specs.htm

And here's a useful discussion of the practical chemistry of vanilloids in broad:

http://antoine.frostburg.edu/chem/senese/101/features/capsaicin.shtml