First time all grain, had problems, beer is really boring :(

I'm not really asking for advice or anything, I know where I messed up and I assume that my problems will be fixed next time I brew... which is tomorrow!

So my first all grain batch, I didn't get my water volumes right. About 2.5 gallons came out of the mash, maybe a little more from the sparge, and so I barely had over 5 gallons in the boil kettle. After the boil was done, my dip tube got clogged, so I panicked and poured everything out into my bucket (only about 3 gallons post boil), topped up with 2 gallons of water and pitched the yeast, then thought to rack to a carboy to get rid of the hops and other solids (rather than rack directly from the boil kettle) which ended up being only 4 gallons so I topped up again with water. I figured it would just dilute fine like my extract beers always did, but after fermenting it tastes pretty thin and watery, no real malt or hops presence.

OG: 1.050, FG: 1.014
8lb 2 row, 2.5 lb malted red wheat, 0.7 lb caramunich. Many oz of columbus and one oz amarillo for an expected IBU of 45 (which was no doubt lower due to the higher actual gravity of the boil).

Anyways, no real questions, except just wondering if the same thing has happened to anyone else. There is nothing wrong with the beer, but, its really boring. I'll keg it and try to serve it to people I don't like as much as the people who get my good beers

Take your time with the next one. AG batches take more time than extract; schedule at least 5 hours/day for an ag batch.

Oh, I think I took my time. It took I think about 5 hours total. I just didn't expect so much water loss to the grain absorbing it, some not coming out of my mash tun, and some boiling off. I figured I start with ~6 gallons, I'd have ~5 when all is said and done, but it was actually more like ~2.5 after the grain absorbed some and some evaporated. Everything else went pretty smoothly.

grain absorbtion was something that kind of surprised me on my first AG, too. I fly sparged really slowly and ended up getting good efficiency though. The beer is EdWort's Haus Pale Ale. It's almost finished bottle conditioning and is quite good so far!

What was your mash temperature?
No offense, but your grain bill is bland. If you mashed below 152°F, that may account for the lack of body.

I'm glad I read this.

I was planning on doing my first full volume AG brew this weekend (wont happen til next weekend) and was worried about having too much volume at the end of the boil. I was planning on decreasing the mash by .25 qt per pound and about the same on the sparge (per pound). Now I think I'll just let it ride and do the full amount.

Sleep better knowing one guy learned from your experience!

Glad to help, BBKing. You've taught me so much about playing guitar, I'm glad I was able to help you with your brewing...

beerkrump, no offense taken. Why do you think it is boring? I've seen a lot of grain bills with just 2 row and wheat, or just 2 row and some crystal... what ideas do you have that might help?