Welcome to the forum.
Love brats in the smoker. Heating them up that way does work well. Just take one or two chunks, put them into the smoker, say at 200/225 and let them go. If they're fresh, take them to 160, if they're already cooked, take them to 140 because you just want to reheat them, not cook them.
A digital thermometer may not be something you have, but most stores carry them, say $20. Test it in boiling water to make sure it's accurate.
Pretty common question about wood. A lot of us through the years always hear "soak the wood".
We actually had this same question this week, it's posted down in the Wood forum, but I've copied the reply here because I think it will answer your questions.
quote:Originally posted by SmokinOkie:
Feel free to try it, but here are my thoughts.
1. Soaking is not good. I know, I know we were all told to soak the wood. Here's why I think it's not good.
Look at the smoke from soaked wood vs not soaked wood. You get a LOT of gray/ugly smoke when soaking. The reason is that soaking wood creates wet wood which smolders not burns. Now to the novice, "seeing" smoke sounds like a good thing, but what you're actually seeing is impurities in the wood because it wasn't able to completely burn... just smolder.
The current thinking is that you don't want dirty/white smoke with the impurities, you want the clear/blue smoke of wood that's actually burning clean.
Not sure how vinegar would help/hurt, but I've seen a few people on food network mention it. I think it "smells" good, but not sure how much, if any flavor it adds.
Just my thoughts, what do I know... you individual result may be exactly what you want.
Good luck, if you try it let us know.
Smokin'
Hope that helps, if you have any specific questions about this or other new guy stuff, just ask. We'll help.
Smokin'