Why does my beer taste watered down?

I brewed Northern Brewer's Amber Ale Extract Kit and kegged it up about 4 weeks ago. Thinking that it might take some time for this beer to come into its own I kept holding out hope. But I don't think it is going to do much more. It tastes very bland, almost watered down. It had a FG of 1.010 and an OG of 1.047. What might have I done wrong? Or is it just this kit?

What was the suggested OG of the kit? Were you very far below that? If not, then it may just be the kit.

Kit OG was 1.047 as was mine.

Probably just the kit then I'd guess. Has this been your experience with just that kit or other kits in the past?

Maybe your serving temp is too low? I find beers in that gravity range tend to have that problem if served too cold.

It is a little tough to give an exact answer without a bit more info as to what the grain bill was in the kit. 1047 and 1010 is a relatively low OG/FG and is probably a big factor in what you're experiencing but it probably isn't the entire story.

If the kit provided a grain bill that would dry out quite a bit and not leave much of a malt backbone and then either used really low alpha hops (or even old hops), maybe the hop levels didn't hit where they were supposed to be either. Both of these instances, I'm guessing, would lead to the "watered down" taste you are talking about.

This might be a dumb question. Are you familiar with a commercial Amber Ale that you are comparing it to, or is it a style new to you? What were your expectations?

Recipe details?

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/AmericanAmber.pdf

^^^ Kit inventory sheet (I love NB! ) 3 oz of cascades during the boil and a pound of caramel 20: I wouldn't expect a bland watered down taste at all...

Could be as some folks suggested an issue with the freshness of the extract, grains, and hops but I personally have had superb luck with NB.