Strange brew???

This is my first cider, or apfelwein, can't decide which category it falls in to. But some weird stuff is going on. Well, weird to me because I'm new to brewing (3 completed beers, one brewing, first cider) So I'll start with the recipe:

One gallon pasteurized apple juice
4 cans apple juice concentrate
1/2 pound dark brown sugar
1/2 pound belgian candi sugar blonde
1 cup pale dme
red star montrachet yeast
1/2 tsp yeast nutrient.
SG 1.090
Roughly 2 gallons finished product.

This cider is being brewed side by side with a belgian quad, which has nothing to do with anything except for the fact that my brew closet smelled like a horse stable about 18 hours after pitching. Temp was 70 at pitching, and was steady for the first 48 hours till yesterday when I dropped it to 60 on advice from someone on the forum. 15 to 18 hours after the pitch, the airlock was bubbling every 4 seconds. 48 hours after pitching, every 2.it's now 75 hours after the pitch and the airlock has stopped bubbling. i took a gravity reading 20 minutes ago, which read 1.036. The weird part is the gravity reading looked like a glass of champagne. Very fine bubbles quickly rising through the tube. It just about looked carbonated. And this sample smelled very very bad. So bad I wasn't even brave enough to taste it, which I regret.So my questions are these, if anyone would be so kind as to help me out a bit.

Now I'm thinking i'm just being a nervous noob because this question sounds ridiculous in my head, but is it possible the yeast cried uncle and gave up on me? I'm tempted to think that since the hydro sample was bubbling, there's still fermentation happening. So do I just take another sample tomorrow, and see how it goes, or just pitch some more yeast? Or forget about it for a week or 15?

I don't remember where I read this, but I thought I read somewhere that with a cider, I should shake up the fermenter once a day. Is that anywhere near true, or is that with beer?

and is that smell normal. When I opened my closet door, the whole loft stunk up quick, and that hydro sample smelled horrendous. It smelled faintly of apples, but rankness dominated.

last question...am I just being a nervous jacka$$, or does anything here sound not quite right. If I'm acting like a noob, please yell at me, and if possible, smack me. Thanks, guys

The yeast may be stressed out a little and it will produce that smell. This isn't something I would worry about.

You can swirl the fermenter daily, yes.

75 hours is very short for something of that starting gravity. Give it some more time man, you wont be disappointed. My first recipe book suggests racking to secondary at 1.020, but I've done this sometimes and not others with similar results.

Just keep waiting; it'll slow down somewhat as it nears the end.

leave it...on the order of a couple weeks...sometimes you get that 'rhino fart' smell, but it does go away as the yeast do thier job and clean up the product. the bubbles are because it is totally saturated with CO2, which is normal. I would say that your fermentation is not done yet, especially with that grav reading.

Patience is hard in this hobby

Vespa, i know all about the patience part. I don't have it, and don't think I can learn it. I know I won't be able to let this thing sit in primo for a month. I'll try my darndest, but don't know if I can do it. The SG on this one is throwing me off a bit on this one. My concern is that maybe the yeast is quitting on me, and I should pitch another packet, but then I think that it's only a 2 gallon batch, and I don't know what to do. The 1.100 SG belgian quad next to it is bubbling like crazy, so I'm kinda comparing the two and expecting them to be on pace with each other. It's my first cider, so after this one I'll know what to expect.

So I have to ask, should I pitch more yealst, or give it a shake and see how it goes? thanks for your help guys.

Are you sure your original SG was only 1.090? From your recipe, it sounds like you are trying to ferment apple syrup and the yeast couldnt take the ABV. That would be a high sugar bill for 5-6 gallons. Get some champagne yeast if you want it any dryer

I glad I'm not the only having doubts about their cider. I'm currently trying one gallon of wild yeast made from fresh cider. It didn't seem to be doing a whole lot after one week so I checked the SG and it hadn't gone down very much at all from an original 1.060. But, I also had the same "champagne" bubbles, so I figured the yeast must still be alive and doing something, just very slowly. I added some yeast nutrient to it last night and it seems to be picking up, albeit only slightly.

wild yeasts can take up to a week to get going. Once they get going you have to really watch them because they will ferment out fast and leave you with no residual sugar. You want a little more residual sugar than normal with a wild yeast

well the first thing would be that you are checking it too soon IMO. Let it be. Dont check the gravity in a few days... check it in one or two weeks. The airlock is not the sign of fermentation.

Next, you did underpitch the yeast. Be great friends with mr malty's yeast calculator. I learned the hard way.. trust me http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html this says that you should have pitched 1.8 (i would have just pitched two) packets of yeast. with that said, i dont think i would run out and pitch another right now... ill let others chime in as well on it though.

I think it was good to bring the temp down as well.

The reason I even checked was because I thought maybe I needed to hit it with some more yeast. The Montrachet is still givin it a good shot though. Since it's an awkward fermenting vessel, just taking the sample gave it a good shake, and two days later, the airlock is bubbling away again, so i gave it another shake and I'm gonna forget about it for awhile, except to give it a swirl, and adjust temp if needed. It's been 5 days, so I know it's not done, just being a worry wart....or wort.

If anyone cares about an update, here it is. Checked gravity, and it's down to 1.004, so maybe I didn't need the extra yeast. The taste, although warm, tasted like apple, and FELT like a shot of jameson. At 11.25, it's very alcoholic, and you can feel the alcohol. The hydro sample was very bubbly again, like champagne. The airlock is still bubbling healthily. Whenever I shake it, it goes nuts.It's been 9 days, and things are going good. So good that I may have to cold crash it and lift it off the yeast into secondary. unless someone knows that's not a good idea? Really can't wait to drink this one now.

Something that high I would primary ferment for two weeks, or crash chill it at your desired FG.
I stopped making ciders that high, it made the next morning difficult.

that one is going to take a while to mellow out...

thats the nice thing about crashing at 1.020...you can drink almost immediately. I have one that I accidentally let go to 1.000 and Im sad now because it wont be any time soon that I can enjoy it...luckily I have another batch that i crashed at 1.018