doesnt taste as strong as expected

Hi everyone.
So I'm new to the forum and have only made on batch of all grain beer which is bottle conditioning as i write this.
So I used a book called clone brews and transferred the recipe (fullers ESB) over to brewsmith and followed the instructions.
The beer seems to be OK but I tasted a little when transferring it to the secondary fermenting bucket and it seemed quite week flavoured so I added 2 oz of dry hops (fuggles and east kent gouldings in a cloth bag and dry hopped for 1 week). It is now bottle conditioning but I tasted it before bottling and it seems like its going to be a nice easy drinking beer but nothing like ESB and I would have expected there to be a lot more hoppiness to the beer with that amount of dry hops.
Also the recipe was supposed to be a 5 gal batch but it ended up as less (15ltrs) so I would imagine it should be stronger flavour being more concentrated.

Just wondering what you guys/gals think.. did I do something wrong or is there any advice for next time.

Thanks in advance.

David

Beer changes continually: first as the yeast works on the sugars and some of the products of its own fermentation, and later as compounds in the beer interact and settle out. What you tasted transferring to secondary is nothing like what the beer will be once it's carbonated and matured.

If you're comparing bottled Fullers to your beer, you're not tasting the real thing. The bottling process, pasturazation, shipping and storage change the character of the beer significantly. I recently tried a draft version of a beer I had only had from bottles. The bottled version was OK; the draft version was wonderful. It's entirely possible that your version of Fullers will be far better than any bottle of Fullers.

Hopping is an art. In spite of all the alpha acid, hop timing, and variety combinations we calculate, there are dozens of variables we don't calculate that can make a huge difference.

Batch volume is not (in my experience) very important. More beer is better than less beer, but a little beer that tastes the way you want is better than lots of beer that misses your flavor target. My goal is to hit a narrow range of bitterness, hop flavor, hop aroma, malt aroma, malt flavor, specific gravity, mouth feel, yeast flavors, and dozens of other variables. Hitting your target pre-boil gravity is one of the most important concerns; volume is the last concern. Check the gravity of your first runnings, then add second runnings (or water) until you get the gravity you want. Then stop. Use your hydrometer til you wear it out!

And, to conclude this novel with what I should have said first: read Palmer's "How to Brew" and Denny Conn's batch sparging guide.  Denny brew.com  and    howtobrew.com

Excellent, thanks for the reply its much appreciated..
The fullers I was hoping to match (or get somewhere close to) is the draft version. I'm English and now live here in Toronto and miss some of the great draft beers that I used to drink back home so thought it would be good to try and brew some that are similar, The fullers ESB in the can is still quite similar although agreed its not the same.
I agree I would much prefer to have a smaller batch of great beer rather than a large batch of terrible beer.
Thanks for the tips on the pre-boil gravity I will certainly make sure I take great note of this in the future boils. unfortunately my hydrometer rolled off the side and broke so I couldn't take a reading of this batch, I now have two so this shouldn't be a problem again. 

Thanks for the reading material I will be sure to check those out...

It took me a few batches to dial in my all-grain setup.

With all grain it's not as simple as following a recipe.  Depending on your mash efficiency you may need to adjust the amount of grain you use.  But you don't know what your efficiency is until after you make a batch.  Even then it varies.

Many book recipes assume that your getting upwards of 90% efficiency off the grain. If you're getting 65% (which isn't great but isn't that bad for a novice home brewer) then everything will be out of whack.  The malt flavor will not be as pronounced and the bitter to sweet may not be balanced. But it's OK. You'll drink it and enjoy it anyway.

If you kept track of specific gravity and volume, then calculating your efficiency is simple enough. If you can't figure out how to do it with BeerSmith just google 'homebrew efficiency calculator' and you'll find one.

Next is the mash temperature. The lower the temperature the thinner the beer. I mash my pilsners in the mid to high 140s. An ESB is a much fuller beer, so a mash temp in the low to mid 150s would be in order.

Don't despair! You'll dial it in.  Take careful notes so you can adjust subsequent recipes.

Either way, I bet you'll like it.  Just because it isn't what you intended doesn't mean it won't be good.

As you take notes on how your brew comes together, record whatever seems pertinent at your state of knowledge, including temperatures at the beginning and end of your mash, time spent in each major step such as the mash and hop boil, whether your initial mash temperature was too hot or cold and needed cold or hot water added, etc.  i haven't needed to make water adjustments yet given what I have brewed all-grain, because we have a very good water profile in the Sierra foothills, but I have been using test strips to estimate my pH just to establish a history for when I brew other styles.

You made an all grain beer, congrats! Relax you expectations, don't be over critical, enjoy your beer! All of us probably have a Clone recipe book, too. After I brewed several batches to these clone guru's recipes, I realized that I was either the worst brewer ever, the clone manifesto was a total rip off, or the authors have zero palate. I don't even know where the book is now.
There are far better sources on the web, including this website, that would give you better feedback about good beer recipes. As said by previous responders, you need to dial your system in. You don't know your system yet, so predicting results is not a option. As an AG brewer you need to taste everything along the process. If your mash taste sweet and flavorful, you are on the way to making a good beer, even if your hat falls into the boil kettle. Brew simple recipes, make a yeast starter for each batch, and you don't need to rack to a secondary fermenter. Your brewing book is outdated or foreign, if it is telling you to use a secondary. Enjoy brewing!