StillSmart

ALVA and the Grainfather.(Sounds like a fairy tale)

I have just started using the ALVA Beer & Still controller and I must say what a nice bit of gear, well done Tom (the guy who makes them).

I’m using it mainly on my Grainfather for beers, especially my step mash recipes. On a fridge for low temp fermenting with lager yeasts, and although I haven't used it yet, it has a built in program that can run my Grainfather fitted with my home built POT still for grain based spirits.

After a few choice words to start with, the ALVA soon became easy to use with the ability to edit and save the programs. In my case it should help me achieve consistency when repeating the same recipe over and over again, and more important, when you’re as old as I am, you won’t forget a stage or step.

The control of the temperature seems to be more accurate and consistent than the Grainfather’s original control unit and keeps the temps bang on.

One thing that is clearly visible is the ALVA’s ability to boil wort, it’s more vigorous than when using the original control unit even though mine was fitted with a Graincoat, boiling wort was the one thing my Grainfather was bad at, it was impossible to do it outside in normal UK weather because I live in the country side where voltage is down.

It comes with all cables and temp sensor to fit the Grainfather, plus a very good 3 part manual and Tom is only an email away for advice.

So you have a link?

That looks vveeerrryyy similar to a braumeister controller.

Tis here

That is a very nice piece of kit v-t.
I've been lusting for one (very happy to read your take on it) but expect will settle for the GF controller upgrade when released in upside-down Land later this year.

Can I ask why?

Mash wrote:Can I ask why?

I love gadgets

Seriously though, I studied the ALVA for a long time and I liked the way I could control my step mashes better.

Unlike the Grainfather controller which tended to over shoot the temps,the ALVA starts regulating the power when it is within 3 degrees from its set temp. It regulates power by switching on and off in a cycle of 10 seconds.
So, for example it switches on for 3 seconds and off for 7 seconds which corresponds to 30% power.

This is the system by which it controls distilling, by monitoring the temp in the vapour path it controls the amount of power supplied, so it ramps up or down accordingly.

The ALVA is a serious bit of kit and has a lot of adjustments, I'm very pleased with it. I bet the new grainfather control doesn't do half of of what the ALVA does

I have now had a read through. This puts the GF + ALVA in the BM class from a control point of view. The BM still has a better SS build quality, but this would be functionally very close for half the price!

I like the idea that it has focused on being a controller and can do numerous things - Brew / still / fridge etc

vino-tinto wrote:[color=#FF0000][b]

Mash wrote:
The ALVA is a serious bit of kit and has a lot of adjustments, I'm very pleased with it. I bet the new grainfather control doesn't do half of of what the ALVA does

Without doubt you'd be right there, v-t.

I understand the basic GF controller is the readily available module that most people use. Some clever people here have swapped it out for even cleverer modules, but the really smart ones have hooked up arduino and gone for smart controls at another level.
I'd think what they've achieved is aligned with ALVA.

UPDATE:
I've got an extra T500 lid & seal and fitted my pot still to it so it's now set up on the Grainfather to do a strip run with the ALVA. I got some more info from Tom the maker and am set to go.
After I have perfected the ALVA pot still programming, I'm going to drill and fit an ALVA temp probe into the top of the T500 column and run it on vapour temp instead of water outlet temp.

Whilst I'm in the first few runs I will be taking readings of vapour, boiler and water temp to give to Tom to see what changes are required to the ALVA program for running a reflux.
If all goes well the ALVA will be the bees knees in machines without huge costs.