Tough casings

[Charlie B]

Hi all. New member here and new to sausage making. I made some bratwurst and dried them overnight. I smoked them today.  Started at 140 degrees with hickory smoke for an hour.  Went to 160 with smoke.  Somehow I messed up step 3 on.  So I set the temp at 170 and the food probe at 165 finish temp. Seemed to take forever to reach temperature.  I changed the temperature to 185 after 5 hours.  The sausage finally reached 165 after 6 hours. Plunged the sausages into an ice water bath. The casings are tough and seem dried out.  Any ideas where I went wrong?

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[old sarge]

Welcome to the forum Charlie. Since I don't do sausage, cannot help.  But use the search function for sausage and you might find an answer or two.  Also, some of the members may chime in.  Good luck and again, welcome.

[Charlie B]

Thanks!