2025 Review- Grilla Grills Silverbac AT with Alpha Connect

Ayoo fellow pelleteers. With Grilla now releasing their 2.0 line alongside what remains of their original models, I figured i would provide a more up-to-date review of the Silverbac with its all terrain kart and the alpha-connect board. A lot of reviews I saw when i did research were 4-5 years old and younger folks, or new members who want to get into the smoking community, may look for a more recent review. I start out by saying that I am relatively new to pellet smoking, but have been using an electric smoker which died this past winter, and a small offset wood/charcoal for about a decade. I fit into the millennial/xennial age group with kiddos. Let's begin.

I got this smoker in March of 2025. After seeing Grilla put their entire pellet product line on sale, I assumed they would be rolling out new models and that they were simply clearing stock, which I think is still the case with the recently dropped 2.0 series. I did some lengthy research (read as reddit, reviews both paid and non via third parties) and settled on this over the Weber Searwood mainly due to the price point(on sale) and the reliability and happiness I read of from owners. Assembly was mostly simple. Anyone handy with a screwdriver/small drill and a ratchet/wrench combo can easily figure it out. It's IKEA for grills. I did require an extra set of hands to lift the grill drum onto the kart due to weight and size. I'm above average height and have orangutang arms, but it was still awkward to handle alone and I'm not trying to nurse a back injury as a dad with 2 small kids. After assembly, i followed the "seasoning" burn in process provided in the instructions and set up the Alpha-Connect(AC for short henceforth). Downloading the app and setting up/connecting to the grill was a breeze. The AC app is fairly intuitive and simplistic. It seemed to have about a 45s-90s delay of what the actual grill read temp wise vs what the app stated, and i feel like that is acceptable. I tested range from my grills assembly location of my shop, to my Hockey Den in the house about 400' away through walls and had no connectivity issues.

Post setup, I did an initial "biscuit test" to determine if there were any hotspots in the grill. It's not scientific, but it did provide the results i was looking for. Basically, placing an 8 ct can of your favorite biscuits spread on the grates, 3 in front, 2 in middle, 3 in back, and then cook them at the recommended temperature and time. My grill seemed to have slightly less heat in the very back, where the middle and front were basically even. The back wasn't far off, and the biscuits did fully cook, but they weren't quite as golden as the other rows. Every grill is different and it's good to know if you are running hot in any specific spot while cooking.

Now for cooking. I always use the PRO vs PID mode to enrich the smoke flavor. My first was a whole 5ish lb chicken pictured above. I won't get into my exact cooking details. If someone wants a recipe or time/instructions they can DM me. This is about the grill itself capabilities. The grill cooked the yardbird well. It had a nice crispy skin and an immensely juicy center and only took about 15 more minutes than i anticipated the cook. However it did come back with a less than smoky flavor than anticipated. I chalked it up to the pellets i used as being potentially damp from shipping. The meat probe provided by Grilla was run next to a 3rd party I have had for years and had zero issues with, and reflected a temp with 5-7 degrees of my independent. I feel comfortable enough with that small variance that i can trust the included probe. You can go into the grills menu and calibrate it, but I just haven't felt much the need to. Next cook, I swapped brands and flavor of pellets to Bear Mountain using the chute on the back of the hopper. Fairly easy process, though i had to encourage some in the very bottom to come out. I then cooked a set of baby back rips(no wrap) with a dry rub, pictured, and they came out just shy of fall off the bone, which is exactly where I like my ribs. Again, cook time was about 15-30m longer than anticipated, but this time the smoke flavor was bursting, which is why i wrote the chicken smoke flavor off as being the pellets. I then smoked a turkey tenderloin, which is a cut of the breast, and it came out similarly juicy and smoky, though a bit dry. Likely my fault and I will adjust my style. I then did a batch of 0-400 wings which came back from my wing-connoisseur wife as the best wings she's ever had. Then came a pork tenderloin which took about 45m more than I anticipated, but equally moist and tender. Lastly, this past week, I threw a 6lb Boston Butt on for BBQ nachos. Sounds weird, but if your a Carolina Hurricanes fan, you know its a staple of hockey tradition here. It is pictured above. I held off on wrapping as long as I could, but I needed it to finish before gametime with my buddies and wrapped it with about 90m to go to get over the temp stall. Everyone loved the smoke flavor and the nice bark texture.

Clean Up. Do it right. Be responsible. Don't leave your grill of any kind messy. I lined the drip pan with foil to make clean up easy. Brush the grates after use while they are still warm. Change the foil or clean the drip pan every couple of cooks. Vacuum the ash out after 2-3 cooks OR after a single long cook. Put bucket liners in the drip catch can to make life easy on you. It honestly takes 20m of your time to do a full clean and its worth it to keep your grill running smoothly for longer. Just like taking care of a vehicle.

All in all, I and my family have been very impressed with the ability of this grill thus far. I have had to make a few modifications to my cook times vs my previous experience, but that is expected with a different kind of smoker. Once you figure out how long a cook will take once, you can use that more or less going forward. As of this moment I would recommend this grill to anyone looking to get their hands on a smoker under $1000. The new models are more pricey, but for a slightly larger hopper and a second meat probe, the price just doesn't justify it for me. If you need that bigger hopper, you are going to be checking your food regularly anyways and can put more pellets in if need be. Hope you all enjoy, and I'll see ya down the road.