Cupola and steam hood alternative

[turnerburner]

Currently in the process of building my first sugar shack. I was planning on using a steam hood instead of a cupola but am interested to know if there are any other alternatives I can use. I thought about putting gable vents in with a ventilation fan but I’m not sure if this would work. Anyone tried anything like this?

[Russell Lampron]

If it were me I would build a cupola to get good venting and to get that traditional sugar house look. I like to have my front pan uncovered so that I can see what's going on and so that visitors can smell the sweet maple in the air. I have a cupola and a steam hood. The steam hood is on my flue pan only and vents into the cupola.

[maple flats]

I have a steam hood on both, the flue pan has the hood setting directly on the pan and the syrup pan is about 16" above the pan. My arrangement is slightly different from the norm, The 2 hoods are connected at the top and line up with each other with each having a 15" steam stack. What is different is that my steam stacks terminate in the cupola where the steam goes out the open cupola doors.
My stacks are each 2 piece, the 15" bottom attached to the hood and then a 13" is suspended from a support rod in the cupola and hangs down into the larger stack from below. With it this way, I just crank a winch handle if I need to raise the hood and the 15" pipe telescopes over the 13" from above. It could even be raised mid boil if needed but never has needed to. With the hoods at rest there is about 6" of the smaller pipe hanging down into the larger one.
You do not need an arrangement like mine, but a cupola is very nice to have to get extra steam out and as others said, it makes the building look like a sugarhouse.

[MapleMark753]

My first small sugar shack had gable vents and a ventilation fan. Worked some, and made some good syrup, but it also rained some inside. Condensation. The steam didn't all go where I'd thought it would go. My thought would be a proper cupola and maybe some basic structure to get the steam to go there. good luck!