Summer sausage with smoke going the whole time

[indynick]

Getting ready to start a batch. I currently have a charcoal smoker so essentially smoke would be on the whole time. I know for the first hour your not supposed to have smoke going so the casings will dry out. Would it still work out ok? I really don't want to put them in the oven as mine will not go down to 140 and I don't want to babysit the oven door for the whole time to keep it at that temp. Thanks

 

[forvols]

I have made several batches of SS in my Weber Smokey Mountain. Put the sausage in a 120* dried for 2hrs bumped temp to 130* for 1hr, bumped temp to 140-145 added wood for smoke for 4-5hrs then bumped temp to 160-170 until IT of 154-156*. Pulled sausage and put into ice water bath to cool down, dried them off, put on the counter to bloom for 2-3hrs then into the fridge. The next day since the sausages were about 3lbs each I cut into thirds, vac sealed and into the freezer.