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Grainy Flavour Standard
The Grainy Flavour Standard (Isobutyraldehyde) is a professional sensory training reference used by beverage and brewing professionals to identify the characteristic grainy flavour often found in beer, coffee, and malt-based beverages.
Grainy flavour is among the most subtle and challenging sensory attributes to detect, as it can be easily masked by other dominant flavours in beer. It is typically described as fresh wheat, harsh, nutty, or like raw grain.
Recognising this flavour helps brewers and sensory professionals maintain product balance, diagnose process variations, and ensure brand consistency.
We ship globally – shipping costs may apply depending on your region
Minimum Order: £275
WHAT IS GRAINY FLAVOUR?
Grainy flavour—chemically represented by isobutyraldehyde — is a sensory note commonly detected in beer and coffee. It evokes aromas and tastes similar to fresh grains, green malt, or raw cereal, sometimes with a harsh or nutty character.
In beer, grainy flavour often resembles freshly milled malt, raw barley, or uncooked grain husks, giving a slightly coarse or astringent mouthfeel. While subtle, it can significantly influence the sensory profile of a beverage when not well balanced.
WHAT CAUSES GRAINY OFF-FLAVOUR?
Grainy off-flavours are primarily caused by the brewing process and the condition of malted barley. Key factors include:
- Barley malt composition – The use of under-modified or insufficiently aged malt can enhance grainy notes.
- Sparging conditions – Over-sparging or sparging with water that’s too hot can extract harsh, grainy compounds.
- Wort boiling control – Inadequate boiling may fail to remove undesirable aldehydes such as isobutyraldehyde, leading to a lingering grainy character.
Because the grainy flavour is subtle, it’s one of the hardest beer flavours to detect, often masked by stronger malt or hop aromas.
USING THE GRAINY FLAVOUR STANDARD FOR SENSORY TRAINING
The FlavorActiV Grainy (Isobutyraldehyde) Flavour Standard is designed for professional sensory training. It enables tasters to:
- Identify and recognise the presence of grainy flavour in beer or coffee.
- Measure the intensity and threshold of this subtle note.
- Calibrate tasting panels to ensure consistent sensory evaluations.
This standard replicates the flavour compound isobutyraldehyde with precision, providing a reliable reference for quality control, product development, and sensory education.
HOW TO RECOGNISE GRAINY FLAVOUR: SENSORY TERMS
When evaluating for grainy flavour, look for these sensory descriptors:
- Green malt
- Fresh grains
- Harsh or astringent mouthfeel
- Raw grain or nutty notes
These terms help standardise the identification of grainy flavour during sensory analysis.
WHAT ARE THE PROFESSIONAL APPLICATIONS OF THE GRAINY FLAVOUR STANDARD?
The Grainy Flavour Standard is widely used in:
- Brewing and beverage production – for monitoring and managing flavour consistency.
- Quality assurance laboratories – for analytical panel calibration.
- Sensory training programs – as part of structured learning for professional tasters and brewers.
- Research and development – to study flavour origins and control in malt-based beverages.
It’s recognised and recommended by both the American Society of Brewing Chemists (ASBC) and the European Brewing Chemists (EBC) as a reference flavour standard.
OTHER INFORMATION
- – Beer Flavour Wheel Number: 0310
- – Flavour Level: 10 µg/l
- – Recommended By: American Society of Brewing Chemists (ASBC) and European Brewing Chemists (EBC)
- – Key Competitor Keywords: Grainy flavour standard, what is Grainy flavour, what causes Grainy flavour
Order the FlavorActiV Grainy Flavour Standard today to elevate your sensory training and ensure the highest quality in your beer and coffee products.
FlavorActiV GMP Flavour Standards
Only Pharmaceutical Quality GMP Flavour Standards provide sufficient quality for professional sensory panels to train and validate with.
We produce encapsulated GMP (Pharmaceutical Good Manufacturing Practice) Flavour Standards that are safe to both smell and drink. The compounds within our capsules impart the aroma, taste and mouthfeel of a specific defect or positive flavour into a beverage for the purposes of taster training, calibration and quality control.
Our individual flavour GMP Flavour Standards are sold by flavour, each flavour pack contains 5 capsules, each separately blister packaged. Our sensory kits contain a mixture of flavours, each separately blister packaged, read the product description for flavour details.
We ship globally, and have over 20 years of experience at it. Our GMP Pharmaceutical Flavour Standards are produced to the highest standards, and as such, their shelf-life is strong and their quality consistent.
FlavorActiV’s flavour centre is the world’s only pharmaceutically run facility dedicated to the production of flavour reference standards. The Flavour Centre is a state-of-the-art facility housed within the campus of world-renowned Quay Pharma near Liverpool in the U.K.
The Flavour Centre was designed by FlavorActiV from the ground up at the direct request of global customers as they looked to move away from inferior food grade ‘certified flavour standards’ to GMP Pharma, a standard that ensures safe, stable, traceable, consistent and long shelf-life products.
All FlavorActiV’s industry-leading encapsulated flavour standards are manufactured following GMP at our Flavour Centre. All aspects of manufacture are overseen by Quay Pharma who are audited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory agency (MHRA). We also welcome customer audits.
Only FlavorActiV GMP flavour standard capsules bear our mark of authenticity.
We brand each of our capsules so that our customers know they’re getting the Pharmaceutical GMP Quality that only FlavorActiV provide.
Industry leading packaging and shelf-life
FlavorActiV flavour standards are blister packaged, which extends shelf-life and protects capsules from potential contamination. The average shelf-life of FlavorActiV flavour standards is 18 months to 4 years, depending on the flavour compounds.
We will never ship in pots or plastic packaging, here’s why…
Blister packaging protects capsules from the environment until they are ready for use. Blister packaging greatly reduces the amount of headspace for possible flavour escape. As each capsule individually blister packaged, making use of one capsule still leaves all others protected. FlavorActiV Flavour Standard packaging is 100% recyclable, as opposed to polypropylene which is not widely recycled.
Pots are semi-porous, they allow molecules to pass through and flavour to be lost, their significant headspace also adds to substantial flavour escape as a gas, even when using just one capsule all those remaining in the pot are exposed.
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