It was mostly steam. But, I typically put the dryer on after about 2.5-3.0 hours of smoke, so there was probably still some smoke coming out yet which isn't a big deal. Most of the smoking is usually done by this time. It is actually kind of hard to tell just how much of it is smoke and how much is steam.
Unless your summer sausage chubs are really short, I would strongly recommend smoking them horizontally like I do my snack sticks or they won't get done evenly as it is a lot hotter the closer to the element you get (unless you have the luxury of a #4 that is). Depending on how many trays you are using you will want to rotate the trays front to back and top to bottom a couple of times during the smoke. My first rotation is at 3 hours, then 2 hours twice, then every hour after that. On the last few checks, I often just start manually rearranging the sticks as they are needed and sometimes flipping them over if they look like they are getting done more on one side than the other. For me, doing close to 30 pounds of sticks at one time prohibits much of the airflow, so the sticks do not get done as evenly as they probably would for smaller batches. The good thing about this type of smoke is that other than the short rebound time to recover the smoking temp, it is not a big deal to open the door to check on the sticks/chubs. When you open the door, even with the dryer running, you will see a rush of steam flowing out of the smoker when you open the door. This quick removal of the steam will only help remove moisture from the smoker.
I have tried temping them in the past with my Maverick et-733, but with the hassle of corded thermometers and having to rotate trays, I gave up on temping the sticks and just go by eye and feel now. Maybe when I get my wireless Meater thermometers I'll be able to temp my sticks again. For summer sausage, it is going to be more important to temp them because it is harder to tell the internal temp from look and feel of a summer sausage.
Tomorrow the real fun starts when I get to put my new VacMaster VP215 chamber vacuum sealer to the test packaging the first two batches of sticks.
Let me know if you have any other questions and good luck on your summer sausage smoke. Are you in Jamestown or Boise? If in Jamestown, I will be coming up from Ellendale on Sunday afternoon and we could meet up on my way back to Fargo and trade some sticks for summer sausage if you are interested. Totally your call though. Just a thought.