New Maple Sap Processing Faculity, Mill Hollow Maple

[Brian Ryther]

7920
Foundation is completed. 30x25 basement for sap/water/ro room. 30x25 kitchen, 30x25 evaporator room, 30x10 wood storage. Tanks will go in the basement this week.

[Maplewalnut]

I feel a road trip coming. Are you having a grand opening event!!
Hopefully you didn't tear down that barn

[PerryFamily]

Thats bigger than my house!! Love it

[western mainer]

Now that's a sugar house! Hope you have low taxes in your town!
Brian

[maple flats]

What a great idea, tanks in the basement. Should keep the sap cooler there.

[Brian Ryther]

What a great idea, tanks in the basement. Should keep the sap cooler there.
Cooler / warmer. Too often I have spent time thawing sap or permeate feed lines to the sap house. And on late season big runs, yes it should help keep the sap from getting any warmer in outside tanks. It also eliminates having to pump sap to off load the sap gathering trucks. It is also a room that wont freeze so the ro is going in the basement as well. And act as a root cellar in the off season for syrup storage. Every sugar house should have a basement, in my opinion.

[K.I. Joe]

Very cool, thanks for sharing

[Brian Ryther]

7924
Picked up the 3500 gallon sap tank that will be going in the basement today. Also a truck load of ss barrels.

[heus]

Wow thats all very impressive!

[PerryFamily]

Cha-ching!!

[ToadHill]

In NY there is a form you can fill out and give to your assessor for any new sugarhouse and it will be exempt for 10 years. Good luck.

[Brian Ryther]

8013
Starting to put the Bents up.

[GeneralStark]

8013
Starting to put the Bents up.

Are you re-using a building or recycling timbers?

[Brian Ryther]

Are you re-using a building or recycling timbers?
All of the timbers are new. The wood is form my land. Beams are Hemlock, braces are cherry. The middle bent, middle columns are cherry and braces are tap hole maple.

[Brian Ryther]

8027
Bents 2 and 3 went up today, before the tornados shut us down.

[unc23win]

That is bad *** some serious timbers there and some serious equipment man. We had tornado warnings here and some very HARD fast rain this morning.

[GeneralStark]

All of the timbers are new. The wood is form my land. Beams are Hemlock, braces are cherry. The middle bent, middle columns are cherry and braces are tap hole maple.

Got it. At first glance those timbers looked pretty weathered so I thought they may be recycled. Nothing like using wood from your land.

[Brian Ryther]

8035
updated construction photo.

[unc23win]

Looks awesome man can't wait to see it all finished.

[Brian Ryther]

8090
All of the king bents are up. A few of the Queen bents are up. The first roof rafter is in place. Evap feed tank is on the 2nd floor.

[Brian Ryther]

8117
Making progress. 1/2 of the roof is on most of the siding. Arch and pans are out of old barn. Might just get it finished for January thaw.

[Sunday Rock Maple]

Outstanding!

I've been off line all summer and am just catching up and so I just read all three pages. Is the whole building 30 x 60 with the basement under the evaporator part (or kitchen part)? Also, would you walk us through the flow from raw sap in to final product out? This seems to be very well thought out and I`d love to hear your vision for it.

[Dan Bolton]

I have been off this site as well all summer till now. My job as a heavy highway road construction operator keeps me really busy until now when i usually get layed off for the winter. Marty and I were splitting some more firewood today and we were both wondering if you were going to have your new sap house ready for this year. Looking at the pics it looks awesome. A lot of blood sweat and tears right there Brian. We made a few upgrades we purchased a brand new leader steam hood. We have just about the rest of the tounge and groove pine up on the inside. Got our cabinets and countertop all lined up and we will be getting our hot water all hooked up here soon. Looking at getting a automatic drawoff too.

[Brian Ryther]

Yes a lot of sweat, some blood, a few stiches, but I don't think any tears have gone into the new building. I will be ready to boil by January. The roof is on. Siding is almost completed. Power is turned on. Lights go in next week. The only major work left to do is the plumbing. Dan, feel free to stop in to check it out.
Sundayrock, The sap flow begins with gravity off loading of trucks into the raw sap tanks, 6k, in the basement. They feed the ro by gravity that is also in the basement. The ro sends the concentrate to the 2nd floor 1k evap feed tank. There is a 180 gallon tank in the basement that will hold the contents of the flue pan during extended freeze periods and while the flue pan is being cleaned.

[Walling's Maple Syrup]

Brian,
Building looks great! Should be a pleasure to make syrup in this year. I promise I will make it over to check it out before I start tapping. When are you going to start drilling? I hope to be ready to start by the first week of Jan. if all goes well. Lot of damage in woods this year. Also, this addiction I have called deer hunting has cost me some time!
Neil

[Sunday Rock Maple]

Good idea on the small tank to drain during lulls. We have a little 2 by 6 Vermont evaporator arch (made in Ogdensburg NY) that I'd like to get set up with a pan for the same purpose of draining and cleaning the big one.

[Dan Bolton]

I am afraid I have the same problem Neil. I started working in the sap house today and i will continue working in there for the next few weeks. In and out of deer hunting of course. Lol. Brian i will definatly stop down next week some time.

[Brian Ryther]

8180
I found this cool photo of the sap tank going into the basement.

[Brian Ryther]

8202
Sugar House!

[tuckermtn]

Excellent! post some inside shots if you have a second. Looking forward to seeing how the new set up works for you...

[WoodButcher]

inside shots would be good. looks great man. beefy.

[Brian Ryther]

8205
More to come as the plumbing and equipment are installed.

[Brian Ryther]

8215
Smoke Stack is up. Now I can brick the evap and finish plumbing.

[Brian Ryther]

823782388239
Basement photos. First shows in foreground a 180 gallon tank that will be used for flue pan concentrate storage during extended freezes and cleanings. In the background a 3500gal raw sap storage tank. To the right are three 800gal tanks for permeate storage, or they can be used for raw sap during sap tsunami situations.
Second photo is a pan to the right to show the ro room.
Third photo is inside the ro room. Not finished. Plumbing is to be completed yet.

[Brian Ryther]

82578258
Put the evaporator together and did a water boil last night.

[Brian Ryther]

82598260
Photos inside the evaporator room, wood storage, 2nd floor w/ evap feed tank.

[Sugarmaker]

Bryan,
Wow! Great documentation on a great sugarhouse! Way bigger project than I would undertake. I like the basement idea. Really saves you a lot of space for those big tanks. The beam style construction is awesome.
Regards,
Chris

[Brian Ryther]

http://youtu.be/ST6keNIzoDg
Full throttle. I guess this completes the process.
Brian

[heus]

Brian was that a test boil or are you tapped? Your whole facility is awesome.

[Brian Ryther]

Heus,
Fully operational. I was pushing the sweet out of the pans at the time of the video from Saturday. 70 gallons so far.