did it become more sweet?

[Saint-Thomas]

I may be imagining this, but I just had my second beer out of a batch of pale ale and it seems to have gotten sweeter in the bottle. The first one I had about a week after bottling (I couldn't wait!) And I was so happy with it, I declared it my best beer yet (I'm still a newbie). Now it has been three weeks and it tasted maltier with a sweet finish, rather than the crisp, hoppy finish it had two weeks ago. IT's still good, but I'm trying to emulate an APA similar to Catawba, Olde Hickory, or even a Sierra Nevada.

Reall simple:
1/2 lb crystal steeped at 150 for 45min.

7 lbs light LME
1/4 maltodextrin
1oz willamette
boil 45 min add
1/2 oz cascade and 1tsp irish moss 15 min
1 oz cascade 5 min
dry hopped with 1/2 oz cascade in the secondary after three days of primary. I used the dry sierra nevada yeast, I think it's US-56? OG 1.048 FG 1.018

Is there any thing in that recipe that might cause it to get sweeter, or do I just need to drink more of it until my I forget my question?

[hooky]

It seems like your finished gravity should have been lower than 1018. I plugged it into Beersmith and it predicted 1049 OG and 1013 FG.

How did you prime it for bottling?

[Saint-Thomas]

Well, I thought so too, but it sat in the secondary for a week and the gravity didn't change between the two last readings I took, one day apart. I figured it was good to go.
Primed it with DME. The carbonation level is spot on, at least it was in the second, sweeter bottle I had last night.

[hooky]

I don't believe the maltodextrin is going to ferment. It's going to add body and some residual sweetness.

The DME you primed with will take a little longer to ferment out also. It won't completely ferment, so it will change the malt profile too.

Your dry hop and late additions are going to dissapate with aging too. Seems kind of soon in your case, but that could contribute to the chage you're perceiving.

Maybe the maltodextrin and priming DME are combining to give you the perception of more sweetness being added? It's going to continue to change as it ages anyway.

You're on the low end of OG for the style and FG to style is 1010 to 1015.

Some of the other, experienced guys will have to chime in, but I'm guessing the extra dextrinous sugars is part of your issue.

[dparsons]

Some extracts contain a higher quantity of unfermentable sugars. Unless you have specs or a history with the extract, you don't know.

I'd still have tried to encourage the fermentation to go again. Stuck fermentations give steady readings but aren't done. The activity of bottling can restart them.

[stronk]

It's just possible that the hop aroma has attenuated slightly due to age and so the aroma balance goes more to the malty side than before (in other words: an illusion).