Why hang sausage while smoking?

[timberbeast7]

Here's my dilemma.  I have a few hundred pounds of wild game in the freezer ready to make sausages.  My wife and I aren't planning on staying in our current house for very long or I buy or build a big smoker.  I want something that would be easy to move with and still make good sausages.

I'm trying to decide which Bradley to get.  I'd like to get the OBS with PID, BUT, I see almost everyone hangs there sausages while smoking.  Is there a good reason for this?  Does it affect the results in any way?  If its just grill marks that doesn't bother me, right now I'm working on recipes and building my smoking knowledge.  I'd rather not buy the 6 rack and PID just to avoid grill marks... especially since in the next couple years I plan on building a large smoker/smokehouse.

Thanks

[viper125]

Well I think trays are just fine. Just leaves lines on the finished meats. But it is easier to rotate racks to prevent burnt or over cook lower ends. I do it both ways. I can also add more sausage in trays because I addded so many. But even with a  extra set of four racks you can invert them on your other ones and double capacity. Troubles with hanging is you don't want them touching so the lenght and with will keep from putting to many in. I do all my sticks and small stuff on racks,kielbasa and larger I hang.

[NePaSmoKer]

I hang 99% of the time. The product smokes better with even temps and i dont have to move racks.

[timberbeast7]

Most of mine with be german style sausage.  I might try some summer sausage as well.  So there is no difference in the way the sausges will cook laying down versus hanging?  (Please forgive my ignorance on the subject, I just want to make sure the OBS will work for making my sausages)

[JZ]

I don't have enough experience with sausage making to answer the question about hanging. I have only done a few batches so far but am hooked. I have tried both ways and they both turn out tasty. The ones that were hung did look nicer because they did not have the grill marks and they were completely round, whereas the ones I did on the racks had some grill marks but I am sure you could reduce that by rotating the sausage. The roundness issue may be solved at the same time.

Others with more experience will be along shortly to answer your questions.

If you are handy you can add extra rack supports to the OBS and get a total of 8 racks in it. It is easy to do and inexpensive.

Apparently I type too slowly as before I posted there were 3 responses.

[timberbeast7]

I hang 99% of the time. The product smokes better with even temps and i dont have to move racks.

Oops, didn't see your post.  So is there enough room in the OBS to hang sausages?

[Sailor]

I hang my sausage in the OBS.  Just as NEPAS said, hanging gives you more temp control.  I can do 10 pounds of sausage by hanging.  20 pounds of summer sausage by hanging and 10 pounds of snack stix by hanging.   The 4 rack OBS does it all  ;D

[viper125]

Hey thats great. But both of you also have fans don't you. When hanging with out the closer to the bottom is always hotter. Then you have to flip them half way threw to get right. Or at least i did before the fan mode. Being hes asking this question i take he dont have a fan.

[timberbeast7]

That's correct I don't have a fan.  Possibly in the future but right now I'm just trying to get started and sausage will be the majority of what I make, at least in the near term.  Just want to make sure the OBS will do what I want and make sure its ok to make sausages laying on the racks instead of hanging them.

[viper125]

When I hang I tie the ends together and rotate a quarter turn at a time to control heat before I had the fan.

[timberbeast7]

When I hang I tie the ends together and rotate a quarter turn at a time to control heat before I had the fan.

Did you rotate front to back or top to bottom? Or both.  I assume it hotter near the bottom of the smoker and I've read that the Bradley are hotter near the back of the smoker.

[devo]

What Viper does is tie the ends together which gives him a closed loop, like a bicycle tire. He can then spin them to where ever he needs them to be and they won't fall off the rod.

[viper125]

Yes As Devo said I make them circles by tieing the ends then just rotate once in a while usually ever hour. Or on racks I pull the top rack and move the rest up them put top on bottom. I also flip the lowest one front to rear when I move it up. Do this on a 45 min to hour too! Hey works for me. Now with the fan it's not as big a deal.