Best smoker for making summer sausage?

[Gus]

I'm starting to look into smoking my own summer sausage. What type of vertical smokers are others using? What size should I be looking at? Looking to spend only what I need to get the job done proper. I think I would prefer electric. Most of the units I see at the box stores look too small. Are they, or am I overestimating what it takes to hang sausage?

Looking forward to responses and tasty sausage!

[ThunderLund78]

Eager to hear some answers on this as well... I'm kind of in the same boat you're in, also wanting to make my own summer sausage, etc. Would also like to experiment with curing hams and bacon.

I've actually put a lot of thought into making my own out of an old freezer and a hot plate or other type of heating element, I also want to add a secondary outside burner of some sort that vents into smoker but keeps most of the heat out for Cold Smoking. Been cruising the net looking for some cheap supplies.

[Walleyehooker]

If I were looking for a smoker for doing sausage I would probably look at the masterbuilt smoker with the window in it. Nice to be able to see what is going on more when doing sausage. But they aren't real big so it would depend on how much sausage you want to smoke at one time.

Very hard to find a freezer or fridge these days that would be good to make a smoker out of. Most have plastic etc. to deal with. If I were to make a bigger smoker I would just have a shop bend me up a box out of stainless to the size I wanted and go from there. Then add a burner or hot plate etc. Doesn't need to be insulated unless you are trying to smoke in cold weather and if you want to use it in colder weather I have seen people build a box out of plywood etc. to go around their smoker. You also don't need a lot of heat to smoke but it takes a lot longer. Years ago up north I had a smoker that was 4X4X8 feet tall made out of tin sheets and a pot belly stove with rock around the stove to retain heat. Used to do 50 or so suckers or tullibee at a time back then.

[Alagnak]

I've had several different store purchased smokers electric and gas. I still use a small vertical pretty much just for fish. I finally built a gas one out of plywood so I could get the size I needed to do #25 batches of summer and snack sticks without crowding and needing to over-rotate the meat. I pretty much use it just for sausage and meats that are low n slow recipes. Plus it's already insulated. There are big enough ones out there but the heck if I was going to spend over a thousand bucks or more when I could make it for $100 or less.

[Walleyehooker]

Although it may not kill you Im not sure I would make one out of plywood that is glued together unless I lined it with a different type of wood.

[Todd Caswell]

Electric all the way. For the money you can't beat a Materbuilt , commonly on sale for under $150.00

[fivebucks]

I built one out of 3/4" plywood around oven racks I had. I am not worried about the glue as I have no exposed ends inside and I don't go over 175 degrees. Not sure what temps melt glued plywood but mine has not delaminated at all.

[ThunderLund78]

If you used plywood and used 2x4s for corner braces and wood screws, I think you'd be in good shape. I guess I'd put a thin bead of glue to act as a sealer but I don't think it would be a factor even if it did get a little hot and plyable.

[hoggs222]

Cabelas in Rogers had a couple of the 30" masterbuilt smokers in the bargain cave last Friday for $130.

[fivebucks]

I took 2x2's and cut a groove in them lengthwise with a dado blade and my plywood slides nicely into place. I also use eye hooks so it can come apart pretty easy also.

[hockeybc69]

Couple things to know with the Masterbuilt is that at low temps, it does not create a lot of smoke.

The heating element that runs the smoker is the heat provider and the smoke maker.

At low temps, the wood chips do not smoke as well.

Other tip if choosing a Masterbuilt is to be sure to rotate things around several times. There are hot spots in the smoker that can vary 20 degrees from one part to another inside. If you are smoking several hours and dont move things, you will have well done summer sausage in one part and not quite done in another part.

No clue if the other electric brands have the same issues or not.

[OnAFly]

I noticed that the temp differential between the smoker and the air temp is what kills the smoke.

If it's hot outside, it's tough to get good smoke at any temp. If it's cold outside it's easy to get smoke even at low temps.

I loosen up the latch on the door so it doesn't seal as well if it's hot out. It lets some of the heat out of the smoker so the element has to turn on more often.

[Farley]

Bradleys give out good smoke regardless of outside temp. I did about 28 lbs of summersausage in mine once and it was overloaded. If I had been more diligent in rotating they would have turned out perfect. Just had some overdone ends and the back ones got done before the front ones. Bradley does make a taller model that would probably be perfect for doing 25lb batches. Only thing that I didnt like about the Bradley is having to use thier pucks only.