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Welcome to the madness! Sausage making is a very rewarding venture that pays for itself in many ways.
For smoke, I'd recommend Oak or hickory. Mesquite is too strong for sausage IMO.
If you haven't purchased yet, I'd highly recommend the Amazen tube for smoke. Good clean burn with the tube. I tried to make a few venturie types and needed up with white smoke, not the clean clear/blue smoke.
I agree as well, my mix is a little different , a combination of hickory, cherry and apple depending on what we have in. majority of time it is is hickory.