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!

[MFL]

Charlie,
Did you soak your casings? I had one batch of tough casings on my sausage before I started to soak overnight. Since I have changed, excellent luck. I also put a splash of lime juice in the water while soaking. You could have bad casings also. I have had good luck with Butcher Packer & Syracuse Casing.
My new method for temps are 130 deg for 1 hour to dry(no smoke), 150 for 1  hour with smoke & 180 deg (with smoke) until  sausage hits 152 deg. I do not go to 165. I then program smoker to drop to 140 deg if I happen to be missing for a few. Bottom rack does cook faster. This  lets me finish in around 3- 3.5 hours instead of an all day deal. Just be careful you get them off when they hit temps.
Hope this helps.

[kcobbva]

I followed Eric's advice on Two guys and a cooler, by cleaning out the casings very well and then doing an overnight soak in water with baking soda.  (1 qt water to 1 1/2tsp baking soda).  Then I stuffed the next day.   I'm still learning my smoke routines, but overall, the end product was very good - so I know it wasn't me as it was my 1st time making sausage.