vertical smoker vs traditional type smoker

[Sdickey1960]

What is the opinion on using a vertical smoker vs a tradional type smoker/grill for snack sticks? Any recomendations on the best one for snack sticks?

[processhead]

Vertical designs are probably more efficient for hanging sausages/snack sticks, although you can certainly use the racks too. Horizontal designs pretty much require you to lay everything out on the rack.

On a vertical smoker, be aware that sometimes the heat source will be much closer to the bottom of hanging sausages. If that is the case, keep some separation to avoid spot heating of the lower end of the sausages or use some sort of heat shield or diffuser over the heat source.

[smokinbubba]

Sdickey1960 you can have the best of both

[Jonathon]

Sdickey1960 It also depends on how you are planning on cooking them. I recently did a batch of sticks on the Camp Chef we have and that starts at 160. It was too cold to stay out there and work on propping the lid so I just started them at 160 and then bumped them at 175 when they hit 130 IT. The sticks were nice and full, flavorful and had a really strong snap to them. Now, after leaving them in the cooler overnight I feel like the casings took on more moisture than they would had I done a normal smoke schedule in a vertical. That caused them to have not the best bite but the batch was far from “ruined”.

So batch size matters, 5-10 lb on a pellet grill combo is no issue, much more than that though and a vertical is going to make your life simpler and (IMO) will give you a superior finished product.