Does yeast ever start to ferment and then just ....die?

[woozy]

So I've been making cider. Start at O.G. of roughly 1.050 after a couple of weeks final gravity is about 1.000 and a bottle with priming sugar and a couple weeks later I have carbonated cider.

I made a couple batches recently and when I open the batch they were flat and kind of sweet. I took a hydrometer reading and they were about 1.010 or 1.008. but completely flat

Um... so did the yeast ferment part of time and just ... die? and then there was no yeast for the priming sugar to kick into gear? Is that even theoretically possible? I would have thought if there was any yeast to get it from 1.050 to 1.010 the yeast would keep going....

 

[Dubstepaaar]

That’s sounds like a very weird scenario.
what temperature was it kept at and what did you use for priming sugar?
I’m quite new to brewing but il be happy to try and give an educated stab in the dark

 

[MikeCo]

How long have the bottles been conditioning? It may require more time. Also make sure the bottles are kept in a warm area (near room temperature) for faster carbonation.

It’s also possible that if the cider was left in the fermenter for a long time, like few months, not enough yeast would be left in suspension to consume the priming sugar. In that case you can add fresh yeast at bottling to speed up carbonation.