I have been making kraut for quite a few years, I pressure can mine.

I usually drain through a strainer then place in a ziplock back with plenty of salt, work all the air out theno put the ziplocked bag in vacuum seal bag and seal, then place in the freezer, I have had casings last this way over a year with no problems.

looking at some of the questions about stuffing snack sticks got me to thinking. For years I have used my grinder to grind the meat for the process and then mix and stuff right away. The stuffer was hard to turn but not impossible, I purchased a 20 electric LEM stuffer a few years back and it just doesn’t have enough power for the snack sticks. I do have a buffalo chopper and was wondering if I used that instead of just grinding it and adding a bit of water to the mix if it would be easier to stuff. has anyone done this?

0_1537994314042_Small batch conversion.pdf

One other thing you may want to try is to stuff the casings as full as you can, once you have achieved your target temp I would put them in an ice bath as quickly as possible to get the internal temp down, you want to stop the cooking process.
Hope this helps.

@ace202 I have a similar set up and this works fine, instead of a hotplate I use an Amazn tube for my cold smoking and it works well. I use this to primarily smoke cheese, chili peppers, salt, etc. good luck.