Feedback on what may have gone wrong? Hard cider/apfelwein.

Hey everyone, I'm sorry if this should be in the wine section cuz I'm not too sure on what makes something hard cider or apfelwein, be it higher alcohol content or aging process? I'm just going to call it cider...

Anyway, this is a story of two ciders... both made very similarly, but one turned out great and the second one did not.

Both were 3gal batches, fermented with two different yeast strains, two different brands of apple juice, and two different types of sugar.

1st batch (turned out great! absolutely loved it, drank all 3gals in less than 2 weeks)

3gal santa cruz organic apple juice
1.5 lbs organic brown cane sugar
1 packet rehydrated red star champagne yeast

Fermented 10 days. Tasted great, SG was 1.003, primed with a small amount of dextrose, put bottles in closet. Tasted one 10 days later and it was WAAAAY over-carbonated so I threw all the bottles in the fridge so they wouldn't explode. Freakin' delicious stuff, with the over-carb I'd even call it "apple champagne."

2nd batch (modeled more after EdWort's Apfelwein)

3gal RW Knudsen organic apple juice
1lbs dextrose
1 packet rehydrated montrachet yeast

This one gave off horrendous "rhino farts" for the first few days. I was worried but after researching on here everything I read said to let it wait and they'll disappear after a few days, and indeed they did. Kept fermenting strong. Air lock bubbling stopped around Jan 10. I took a reading today and SG was 1.001 (18 days in fermenter).

But when I popped the airlock off the carboy, there was a definite kind of rhino-farty (albeit much more mild) odor. Tasted the hydrometer sample and there's a distinct funkiness to it, mostly aroma, that hits you first, and then eases, but the cider itself is a little tangy as well.

It's drinkable, but not great. Went ahead and racked it into the original glass containers as I wasn't planning on carbonating this one. I was wondering if anyone could give me feedback on what they think I did wrong?

Could it be the juice, yeast, not letting it bottle condition (although the 1st batch was fine before bottle conditioning), or just not letting it age long enough in the carboy? I hope it's not the juice, because I have 5gals of that same juice (but with red star champagne yeast) fermenting now. Do you have to let cider made from montrachet age longer, and I just got impatient?

TIA for any insights.

My guess, as I'm a newbie with a total of 15 gallons brewed successfully, is that you need to wait a bit on the EdWort-inspired batch. From what I have read, it takes a few months before you should even look at it. I have a batch conditioning right now, and after a month of conditioning, it is not that good. I can sense that it has potential, it just needs a lot more time to age.

One of the experienced folks will be along to correct me, I'm sure.

Drinking a cider three weeks after you pitch the yeast is very ambitious. It sounds more like a beer timetable. For comparison, I make a few batches of cider every fall and usually don't even sample them till spring. Minimize the headspace and let it age.

Also, your first cider may have been overcarbonated because you bottled it before it was done fermenting. Champagne yeast will typically take a cider to around 0.996. Even without adding priming sugar, a cider bottled at 1.003 would only have to drop to 1.000 to be carbonated. Be patient. Most cidermakers wait months before bottling their cider.