Can over-priming lead to sweetness?

So I cracked the first bottle of an American Pale Ale that I made (Kona clone), and I knew it was going to be overcarbed based on a miscalculation of priming sugar added. Maybe a difference from the desired 2.0 to 2.4 volumes CO2, so not too bad.

However, there is some residual sweetness in the beer, that shouldn't be there since I hit the OG and FG on the head.

I'm wondering is it possible that there is some left-over priming sugar that was not metabolized by the yeast, thus giving rise to the sweetness?

I did crash cool for 5 days prior to bottling, but dont believe that should've dropped out all the yeast, there should have been plenty to use up all the priming sugar -- as was attested by the overcarbonation.

Any thoughts?

The only way you're going to have left over sugar is if it's a type of sugar that isn't fermentable (e.g. lactose), or if you put in so much sugar the yeast die from the amount of alcohol produced....which would be like 14+% ABV.

So I don't think that's it. It's probably related to the amount of malt you used and/or not getting enough IBUs from the hops additions.

The beer did seem under-hopped to me, even though I followed the recipe to the letter...so possibly the beer is meant to be slightly maltier?

Recipe is here (extract version):
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f66/kona-fire-rock-pale-ale-ag-clone-52220/

Since you did the extract version, are you doing partial boils? A more concentrated wort would lower utilization.

KeithMoonsLiver said:

Since you did the extract version, are you doing partial boils? A more concentrated wort would lower utilization.

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It was a 3 gallon full boil.

How long has it been since you bottled?

Could be you used old hops, or they were sitting on a hot truck for a long time, etc. Heat and time will degrade the acids in the hops and you'll lose bitterness that way.

JonK331 said:

How long has it been since you bottled?

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> 3 weeks.