I just wanted to thank everyone who provided feedback on this. Had a great weekend with family while making sticks with my niece from her first deer harvest from last fall, which I got to enjoy with her as well. The sticks turned out great as far as processing and smoking. The honey bbq flavor isn’t my preferred flavor. Everyone agreed that they were ok but not nearly as preferred as the willies or prpperstick that we usually do.

I’m wanting to make brats soon for the first time. My question is will the fresh collagen casings allow me to link and separate before packaging easily? If so can I separate the brats from each other as soon as they’re linked or should I stuff, link, firm up in freezer, and then separate and package? Thank you in advance for your information.

Snake River Smokers have you ever used the collagen, or are you giving your preference on tubed vs non-tuned in the naturals?

Jonathon thanks for the reply! I’ll run it all in one process, adding the ECA at the end of mixing and go straight into stuffing/smoking. Final thought, since the stuffed sticks won’t be held overnight in refrigerator, is the “drying cycle” still critical at the beginning of the smoking schedule?

Dave in AZ no worries, the cure was reduced by 12% to match the reduction in meat block weight.