our first batch of beer

hey everyone, lunchbox and tristan here. we cracked our first bottles of beer tonight. for our firs batch, we can't complain. but there are questions... we brewed an amber and a red ale. for our first two batches, we used recipes from our local brew supply store. the amber is flavorless and high carbonation. the red has light flavoring and a decent amount of carbonation also. for the amber, we used 2 lb of grain, 6 lb of briess pilsen malt, and 1 oz of boiling 1 oz of finishing hops. pretty much the same for the red also. there are so many pros out there, can any of you maybe explain why our beer is so bland and carbonated. all we can think is that we didn't use enough barley and not enough sugar. thanks so much.

Ill start by giving you a big pat on the back for getting you first 2 brews under your belt. My first one tasted like overcarbed seltzer water .

What was your starting gravity and final gravity? Both of these numbers will tell you how much fermentables you started with and how well it fermented. As why they taste bland .... it depends on what type of grains you steeped with and how much you used. A little more info on your recipe and procedure will will make it easier for us to help you. Also how much priming sugar did you use?

More detail... what kind of grain, what kind of hops? You don't want to add sugar to the beer (DME is ok).

"6 lb of briess pilsen malt"; just so I'm not a *******, are you referring to a base malt GRAIN (2-row), or an extract of some kind? Assuming that it is a grain (which it sounds like). what were your mashing and sparging procedures?