Bitter or APA?

Ok, so I just started to drink a batch that I brewed and it has a taste more like an American Pale Ale than an English bitter. I was wondering (based on the recipe) what you long time brewers though this was. Is it an (Americanized) English Bitter or is it an American Pale Ale?

3 gallon boil

4 lbs. Light DME
1 lb Rice Syrup Solids
1 1/4 oz. American Saaz (boil 60 mins)
1 oz. U.K. Kent Goldings (boil 10 mins)

One week in the primary, one week in the secondary, bottled with 5 oz. of corn sugar. Aged in bottles three weeks. (It is still a little flat, there is some head but not good retention and no carbonation in the beer itself. I still have yet to try one cold.)

APA or Bitter? Ideas?

I always look at the difference between a PA and a bitter as the aroma hop addition IMHO. Although, historically I believe that the difference was primarily the delivery - bottle for PA and cask for bitter.

Looks like a bitter. Not enough late hop additions to be an APA.

Serve that bitter a bit higher temp and a bit flatter. That's the style. You want the malty profile to come through and ice cold and fizzy, is not the way to do that.

The rice solids thru me, I think it should be a malty brew( like BierMuncher said) and the solids thin it so it is somewhere in between several styles

well, I called it an American Special Bitter because of the rice, but it tasted slightly like an APA that's why I was wondering.

I just did a bitter. I would recommend using Fuggles next time for your bittering hops. Your grain bill seems light. Perhaps just a touch of some 60L Crystal next time.

i think a writer for BYO mag just claimed that what makes the bitter is the crystal malt. then again, the american caramel is similar and ends up in apas a lot.

I'd say neither. Without any crystal at all, this is closer to a Pilsner recipe with an ale yeast. Bitters have some crystal in them, typically C60L or so. They will also have smaller flavor and aroma adds than Pales. APA's use C20L and will have larger flavor & aroma adds.

What was the AA% on the Saaz? It might have been too low, which is why the EKG is dominating.

the AA% on the American Saaz was 5%. I'll have to check my notes though.