Summer Sausage Temp Struggles

[Preacher Man]

This is my 3rd time following @Bearcarver 's method for his bear logs. Every single time I've had fits trying to get the IT up to 155+ by keeping my smoker at a finishing temp of 180°. They like to stay at around the 145° mark unless I bump the temperature up to 225°+. Like right now, they're at 144° and have been for the last 3 hours, while my smoker temp is bouncing between 179°-184°. I've been trying to keep my smoker temps lower this time so that I can get a smoother texture on my finished product.

Any thoughts on this?

 

[mosparky]

In other similar recipes Bear has a timeline of IT's. On the Mini bear loafs is such a timeline. Looks to me it took 5 hrs to go from 138 to 160'ish. 2 of those hrs went from 138 to 153 and a whole 3 hrs from there to 160. Just be patient. I imagine your logs are bigger than the mini-loaves so it might take even longer.

 

[Preacher Man]

In other similar recipes Bear has a timeline of IT's. On the Mini bear loafs is such a timeline. Looks to me it took 5 hrs to go from 138 to 160'ish. 2 of those hrs went from 138 to 153 and a whole 3 hrs from there to 160. Just be patient. I imagine your logs are bigger than the mini-loaves so it might take even longer.

After posting that, I did a google search on summer sausage IT's and it took me to several SMF threads that discussed a possible Summer Sausage stall. Lots of helpful stuff. I probably should've done all that searching before my post.

 

[crazymoon]

PM, I have had plenty of stalls with SS, you just have to wait it out and the temp will climb again. Increasing your smoker temp can result in "fatout" where you fats drip out of the product making for a dry SS.

 

[Bearcarver]

This is my 3rd time following @Bearcarver 's method for his bear logs. Every single time I've had fits trying to get the IT up to 155+ by keeping my smoker at a finishing temp of 180°. They like to stay at around the 145° mark unless I bump the temperature up to 225°+. Like right now, they're at 144° and have been for the last 3 hours, while my smoker temp is bouncing between 179°-184°. I've been trying to keep my smoker temps lower this time so that I can get a smoother texture on my finished product.

Any thoughts on this?

Logs & Loaves can be slow to rise, but you gotta wait it out.
I have already raised my temp to 200°, but I noticed more Fat Dripping from the Bear Loaf, So I wouldn't recommend that.
Below is a normal Bear Loaf Smoking Day.

Smoking Day:
6:30 AM---------Pre-heat MES 40 to 140˚.
6:45 AM---------Remove racks with meat loaves from fridge, and put them in your pre-heated (140˚) smoker.
7:30 AM---------Put full AMNS (lit on one end) on bottom bars, to left of chip drawer.
11:00 AM-------Internal temps at 116˚-------Bump Smoker Temp to 160˚.
2:00 PM---------Internal Temps at 138˚-------Bump Smoker Temp to 180˚.
4:00 PM---------Internal Temps at 153˚-------Bump Smoker Temp to 190˚.
7:00 PM---------Internal Temps at 161˚ to 169˚------Remove from smoker.

Bear